Arkansas translucent white hone

[Vlad]

Stupid ebay. Why didn't I leave my initial bid and walk away? Anyway, I won my auction, and here's the stone I got. It feels like I spent an hour lapping it with SiC powder, but it was probably more like 30 minutes. After it cleaned up a little I drew on it with a marker and the lines disappeared simultaneously (and slowly!). So there was nothing to indicate to me that there were any high/low spots.

But everything I read about these says you have to lap them for hours and hours. So, do you gents have any insight to share? The two little marks toward the end with the chip go in, the don't stick out. I think it would take days of lapping to get them out.

Back side

 

[Gamma]

Nice rock.

Lapping off grid lines does not mean the stone is flat - when the striaghtedge says it's flat, then it's flat.
Check it with a good straight edge across both axes in several spots.

Sometimes you get lucky - other times it takes a lot of elbow grease to get them right...

 

[kcb5150]

you may have been lucky and got off easily

 

[kcb5150]

If you get one of those polished and it is even slightly out it is blatantly obvious visually a lot of the time when you look at an angle. I have done 3 and that is enough for me forever with arks.

 

[Vlad]

Nice rock.

Lapping off grid lines does not mean the stone is flat - when the striaghtedge says it's flat, then it's flat.
Check it with a good straight edge across both axes in several spots.

Sometimes you get lucky - other times it takes a lot of elbow grease to get them right...

I'm not sure how close to look. The straight edge shows no low spots, but if i look towards a light source I can still see light peeking through, same as my coti and synthetic.

 

[eKretz]

If you want to know how big the gap is, try to shove a piece of paper under it. If it's too small to get the paper in your stone is out less than .004". If you actually have a set of feeler gages (seems that not many do these days) you can use those to get a better idea of the actual gap.

 

[Gamma]

Check lengthwise in 3 places, across the short dimension in 3 places, and then both ways diagonally.
If you see light - either it's not flat or the straight edge isn't straight. Or both.

 

[oakeshott]

Vlad,
Have you lapped it with anything after the SIC powder? The SIC will get it "mostly flat", but may leave some very slight unevenness. Regardless of that, you'll need to smooth it out if you want to use it for razors. I generally follow up SIC powder with a sheet or two of 800 grit w/d, then 1k w/d, 1.5k w/d and then a couple of sheets of 2k w/d. I don't bother with w/d under 800 grit for an arkie. Just not effective. Frankly, you could probably start at 1k.

After you do all of this, then spend a few hours/day over the next few weeks running some chisels over it. Then you'll be ready for razors. And a rest. It's really brutal, but once you're done, they're great finishers.

 

[Vlad]

Vlad,
Have you lapped it with anything after the SIC powder? The SIC will get it "mostly flat", but may leave some very slight unevenness. Regardless of that, you'll need to smooth it out if you want to use it for razors. I generally follow up SIC powder with a sheet or two of 800 grit w/d, then 1k w/d, 1.5k w/d and then a couple of sheets of 2k w/d. I don't bother with w/d under 800 grit for an arkie. Just not effective. Frankly, you could probably start at 1k.

After you do all of this, then spend a few hours/day over the next few weeks running some chisels over it. Then you'll be ready for razors. And a rest. It's really brutal, but once you're done, they're great finishers.

Thank you! I don't have w/d paper, would a 2k synthetic stone work? Or BBW?

 

[SliceOfLife]

No. An arkansas would eat almost any 2k synth or BBW for lunch.

 

[Vlad]

Those two spots? They're gone. Dang that was a lot of stone to wear through. It might still a little high in the middle, but I'm not sure of anything anymore. Checking with different straight edges gives me slightly different results.

I'm going to skip to the "use a knife on it for a bazillion laps" part since I don't have the w/d stuff. On soft steel, it removes a lot more material than I thought. You can easily see it grey quickly, and since I'm only using water I wash it off every few seconds. (Honing the knife under running water.)

 

[Haggises]

dang, was that the one that needed to be relisted last week? I thought it looked too good to be true so I stupidly passed.

Nice looking rock.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Don't bother with the knife running. Just get a block of hard steel. Find a cheap, wide chisel or file or something that'll be high hrc at a flea market, goodwill or yardsale and run that thing into the ground on it. No reason to waste a knife when you can use something that is worthless to you and will do less to put the stone out of flat anyway. I just use knives to break in arks because I have lots of knives that need honing anyway. I wouldn't use them on an ark purely for the wear on the ark.

 

[Vlad]

dang, was that the one that needed to be relisted last week? I thought it looked too good to be true so I stupidly passed.

Nice looking rock.

Not sure what you mean. It was an impulse ebay buy. It was a good deal to start, but not by the time I finished bidding on it!

Don't bother with the knife running. Just get a block of hard steel. Find a cheap, wide chisel or file or something that'll be high hrc at a flea market, goodwill or yardsale and run that thing into the ground on it. No reason to waste a knife when you can use something that is worthless to you and will do less to put the stone out of flat anyway. I just use knives to break in arks because I have lots of knives that need honing anyway. I wouldn't use them on an ark purely for the wear on the ark.

Thank you, I'll do that!

 

[Haggises]

Not sure what you mean. It was an impulse ebay buy. It was a good deal to start, but not by the time I finished bidding on it!

Well I won't tell you how much I could have had it for the week before
My loss, your gain (I think!)

 

[Vlad]

Well I won't tell you how much I could have had it for the week before
My loss, your gain (I think!)

Ha ha, I'm guessing $30, right? My initial top bid was $50. I should have left it there and lost it to the other guy. But nooooooo, I'm an idiot with a new fetish for natural stones.

 

[Haggises]

add 9.99

 

[oakeshott]

Thank you! I don't have w/d paper, would a 2k synthetic stone work? Or BBW?

Vlad,

You can get the w/d you need from Amazon. It makes a big difference and saves a lot of time over waiting for steel to do the work.

 

[Vlad]

Vlad,

You can get the w/d you need from Amazon. It makes a big difference and saves a lot of time over waiting for steel to do the work.

Crap this is a lot of work! If I turn into a arki fan boy after this, it's just because I've invested so much it can't not be the most amazing stone ever cut out of the ground.

Is this what I'm looking for? http://www.amazon.com/Bluecell-Sand...SX2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433938558&sr=8-1&

 

[Oscroft]

If you're buying W&D paper, I've found it makes a big difference getting a decent brand. I've bought some cheap stuff in the past and it wasn't much better than rubbing on wallpaper, so these days I always go for 3M if I can find it.