Any ideas what these are? Bonus ark and coti love welcomed!

[Empire straights]

It is one, yes. Always a nice find, congrats! Though have fun lapping it...

By all means use it for tools, just as long as you know you're giving them the very best. A Washita may not be as fine as a hard black or translucent, but it many ways it's a superior stone. The range of a good one can be astonishing, like no other stone anywhere. Very good fine natural stones are comparatively common; you won't find a jnat that can do 1k as well as a synthetic, but a Washita will, and the same stone might finish at 7k. The only things comparable I know are old Turkish, which are even quicker, but don't tend to have the low end that a Washita does. Right up there with greatest stones ever quarried, for my money.

(I concede that you probably have nicer tools, and look after them better than I do! But it's not something you should see as 'just' for tools.)

I used that stone on my knife last night and finished on a super hard black river stone i found years ago(suspected black novaculite) and i got my gerber pocket knife sharper than i ever have before. The washita feels as fine as new hard arkansas and even after 200 laps with pressure it never slurried, but it cut and polished the crap out of the blade. When i was finished it looked like it came off CrOx, hazy mirror. I was able to get the knife almost to shaving arm hair(my knife sucks and hates to take an edge, even on diamond plates). 20 laps on the tiny river stone and it would shave arm hair silently. Another 50 and it would hht just above the skin. Never been anywhere near that sharp. My other knives do fine, there a reason this one is the maintenance man beater blade. Low end Gerber sucks, started after walmart picked up their stuff. Sold their soul, sadly.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I find turkeys much less consistent cutters too; though their speed can be so impressive it almost makes up for it. And damn are they pretty.


And yeah that 8" is a washita. The boxed smith hard ark is one of those stones that is a hard ark, a "medium" ark, a soft ark and a "Washita". Basically whatever they needed to produce that day is the box those get put in, it seems. Can be good stones, but the Washita should be superior to it in most ways in my experience.

Also agree about the third stone. Probably a fine India or something along those lines. Great stones for polishing up a lot of tools to a reasonable edge, but a dime a dozen, and you should only ever need one unless you do crazy amounts of tool honing.

 

[Empire straights]

I find turkeys much less consistent cutters too; though their speed can be so impressive it almost makes up for it. And damn are they pretty.


And yeah that 8" is a washita. The boxed smith hard ark is one of those stones that is a hard ark, a "medium" ark, a soft ark and a "Washita". Basically whatever they needed to produce that day is the box those get put in, it seems. Can be good stones, but the Washita should be superior to it in most ways in my experience.

Also agree about the third stone. Probably a fine India or something along those lines. Great stones for polishing up a lot of tools to a reasonable edge, but a dime a dozen, and you should only ever need one unless you do crazy amounts of tool honing.

The smith's hard ark seems like it can do the work from all kinds of ranges (bevel setting can be done but not fun, take far too much pressure and too long, but it shines when i bring a coticule edge that's been taken beyond what it probably should be able to do on a coticule.

 

[cotedupy]

I find turkeys much less consistent cutters too; though their speed can be so impressive it almost makes up for it. And damn are they pretty.


And yeah that 8" is a washita. The boxed smith hard ark is one of those stones that is a hard ark, a "medium" ark, a soft ark and a "Washita". Basically whatever they needed to produce that day is the box those get put in, it seems. Can be good stones, but the Washita should be superior to it in most ways in my experience.

Also agree about the third stone. Probably a fine India or something along those lines. Great stones for polishing up a lot of tools to a reasonable edge, but a dime a dozen, and you should only ever need one unless you do crazy amounts of tool honing.

I'd certainly agree with regards the most recent Turkish I found (I only have two). But my first one is a dream, and also looks more consistent, though that does make it less pretty . That they were mined in, traded by, and sold into, markets with far less consistent quality control than Washitas were I imagine is a big a factor.

Unfortunately I only have one Washita atm, but along with my first Turkish - they're the best two natural stones I have. At least for what I sharpen... I doubt either are razor finishers!

 

[Empire straights]

I find turkeys much less consistent cutters too; though their speed can be so impressive it almost makes up for it. And damn are they pretty.


And yeah that 8" is a washita. The boxed smith hard ark is one of those stones that is a hard ark, a "medium" ark, a soft ark and a "Washita". Basically whatever they needed to produce that day is the box those get put in, it seems. Can be good stones, but the Washita should be superior to it in most ways in my experience.

Also agree about the third stone. Probably a fine India or something along those lines. Great stones for polishing up a lot of tools to a reasonable edge, but a dime a dozen, and you should only ever need one unless you do crazy amounts of tool honing.

It's crazy, that ugly molted 4" feels like glass and it's heavy and dense. I need to recalculate sg but i believe it to be around 2.58. I was able to get my first coticule blade and i finished on that little ark and it was one of the smoothest shaves I've ever had. I love the coticule i have that sounds like terracotta shards. But finishing on that ark made the edge *feel* sharp again but the shave was buttery.. I've fallen for the coticule mid/ ark finish.