When it comes to sharpness, the edges I get off my les lat hybrid blow any other coticule edges I have shaved with, out of the water.
Arkansas Love...Let's see those Arks!
- Thread starter David
- Start date
Funny you mention that. That's exactly what I use soft arks (or hard Washita) for most often. Cleaning side/wall rust off my blue/white steel knives without destroying their character.
Ah yeah - that nakiri is blue 2, and they do seem to do very nicely for it, especially the colourful softs
. I've only tried a couple of times with Washitas, but will give a proper go next time I need to sort something out a bit (which is quite often given my wife's rather relaxed approach to washing and drying carbon steel knives!)Using a little bit of that colorful soft to put a light slurry on the Washita can do funny and impressive things sometimes. I've used those colorful ones to slurry on translucent and black arks too. I recommend against this with razors but it's awesome with knives.Ah yeah - that nakiri is blue 2, and they do seem to do very nicely for it, especially the colourful softs
Oh I can see that working a feckin treat now that you mention! Will certainly try out soon
.It'll make short work out of a knife, can almost be comparable to using a SiC stone as far as aggressiveness but it'll polish too. Hopefully I find a colorful one that matches the one I broke one day, but it makes a decent slurry stone.Oh I can see that working a feckin treat now that you mention! Will certainly try out soon
Added a few more nice arkansas stones to the collection. I had been wanting an 8" between my Washita and Translucent Arkansas stones and found two nice ones from same person. A government/military code stamped Natural Hones Inc and an Indian Mountain. Always curious about the different arkansas stone mines I had to check them out. Neither have a type label but I estimate both to be in the 2.4 g/cm3 range.
Natural Hones Inc looks to be a smaller arkansas stone producer in 70s-80s. This government code number seems to have at one point been filled by norton and also smiths stones. I had never thought about the military using arkansas stones but I assume someone needs to keep stuff sharp. I bet now adays they just use India or Crystolons though. It is a pretty 8x2x1" stone with grey, black and orange parts. Even though these grey speckled "new" soft arkansas are pretty prevelant I havent used one for a while. The last one I used was from Dans and it would glaze over too quick. Looking forward to seeing if this stone does better.
I have had a 6" Indian Mountain arkansas stone for years that is almost indistinguishable from lily white washita. This new 8" stone is semi transIucent and even has a swath of extra transIucent. It should fit nicely before transIucent arkansas stones. I think the Indian Mountain company was putting out some great stones while running. Don't turn your nose up on them, this is a sweet stone and exactly what I was looking for.
And....My Norton LWW was feeling lonely and needed company so I scooped up a matching Hard Arkansas to keep it company. This norton is one of the slickest transIucents stones I've ever used, pure crystal. I am very fortunate to have these stones.
Natural Hones Inc looks to be a smaller arkansas stone producer in 70s-80s. This government code number seems to have at one point been filled by norton and also smiths stones. I had never thought about the military using arkansas stones but I assume someone needs to keep stuff sharp. I bet now adays they just use India or Crystolons though. It is a pretty 8x2x1" stone with grey, black and orange parts. Even though these grey speckled "new" soft arkansas are pretty prevelant I havent used one for a while. The last one I used was from Dans and it would glaze over too quick. Looking forward to seeing if this stone does better.
I have had a 6" Indian Mountain arkansas stone for years that is almost indistinguishable from lily white washita. This new 8" stone is semi transIucent and even has a swath of extra transIucent. It should fit nicely before transIucent arkansas stones. I think the Indian Mountain company was putting out some great stones while running. Don't turn your nose up on them, this is a sweet stone and exactly what I was looking for.
And....My Norton LWW was feeling lonely and needed company so I scooped up a matching Hard Arkansas to keep it company. This norton is one of the slickest transIucents stones I've ever used, pure crystal. I am very fortunate to have these stones.
One thing I've noticed with most ALL stones, and across all brands, time periods, everything, (with the stone I have) older stones ate MUCH better unless your into synths. I can't speak on jnats or any non European/ American stones. Those stones are gorgeous, I have an old smith's stone that like like a marbled mix between an old "ugly hard" and hard black. It's a fantastic knife and razor finisher. It's the color of a calico cat. i forgot I had it until I pulled it out of my to bag. I made a lace up strap for it to keep the box together and to use as a strop block and it works great. I had never heard of norton or pike(or any other brand of stone) but smith's and Indian mountian whetstones. Quite a few hand cut stones around where I grew up. My old smith's stones are fantastic and I use them all the time. Their new stones that I've bought are garbage except if one tiny multi colored, purple, semi translucent pocket stone that is very small but very, very good. It came from one of the absolute trash, new kits, but the fine stone was great. I hate plastics bases. It's one of those purple "true hard" stones and it really pretty but I've never seen an ark like it. It has the little bubbles on the surface like some llyn Idwals do. I wish I had a bench stone clone of this exact pocket stone.
This purple pocket stone and the A.G. Russell "hard arkansas" stone are the only stones I keep next to my sink. I don't use them often but I find they can fix nearly anything in a flash if the razor is not just wrecked. I want to get a "true hard" semi bench stone from Dan's that looks like this, I've seen them put up pictures of them. I want a 6" x 1.5" x 1-1.5".
I have a few big, old AG Russell stones that I bought new from him in the 70’s, great stones. He used to sell them at gun shows and loved to talk knives and honing. Way before he became “The” Knife maker and almost singlehandedly created the custom Knife industry.
My conversations with him over the years are what got me into razors. He told me, if you really want to learn about sharp, learn to hone a straight razor. So, I did.
My conversations with him over the years are what got me into razors. He told me, if you really want to learn about sharp, learn to hone a straight razor. So, I did.
I have a Natural Hones Inc stone (as actually does @Legion - they clearly found their way to Aus back in the day). I couldn't find out anything about the company at all really, so this is interesting!
Is your NHI the one with the wild colours? Mine looks like this (you've prob seen before):
Soft and friable calico stone with an SG of 2.13, though it's labelled as Soft Arkansas rather than Washita, few sand pockets I had to dig out a bit, probably quite a low quality stone...
It's also excellent, I really like it. Much better than the old Norton Soft Ark I have.
I hope to get an AG Russell stone someday too, always nice quality looking stones. I think people know how good they are, or atleast are more collectable. He was right about SRs being the best place to learn sharpness! That's what got me into them too, every Knife I could find was too sharp and I wanted more to sharpen.
I had seen that beauty before but didn't realize it was a Natural Hones Inc stone! There are some geological/mining reports from arkansas where I found some info on them, were the smallest stone producer at the time. Searching that long number also was curious as there seemed to be a history of Goverment catalog grade Novaculite stones being produced.
The Multicolored stone is the Natural Hone Inc stone. It is fairly hard and heavy, it is stuck in the box but I did my best guess estimate on density by measuring dimensions. Then measuring stone plus base weight and subtracting the top's weight which is a close match. Got 2.4 which matches up with the honing feel and speed to me. It was already flat and only did a 120/220 SiC surface refresh plus edge chamfering. It already is more discolored from swarf than in that picture after a few knives and is holding onto its cut, but not as fast as a Washita. One of these two stones are going to move onto a relative, might be this one as they will appreciate the cedar box more.
Very nice! That's a pretty slick logo and slogan, Whetstone Supplier to the world!
Ah yeah same - cos mine's very fast, and I use with knives, it swarfs up loads so the colours are somewhat more muted now than they were just after I cleaned it up.
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I saw a British military issue Tam a little while back, and did some research about it. The company that supplied it were a London based supplier of medical instruments, including stuff like field surgery kits &c. I'm guessing that's what stones like these would have been used for, and why they still needed finer natural stones like arks and tams, rather than using Indias and Crystolons...
(Though I suppose that probably doesn't explain why they didn't just use disposable blades for stuff like that).
I guess it depends on how old the stone was. Disposable blade medical tools are a pretty recent invention. As recently as WW1 surgeons would have been sharpening and reusing blades, and a lot of our hones are much older than that.
I've seen antique medical kits, and the tools had wood or ivory handles. I'm guessing sterilisation wasnt a primary concern...
Every soft/ washita that i own that has purple or pink in them have been insanely good stones. Some of the best work stones I've had.
Yeah I remember you saying. You'll remember the Tam I was talking about, with a '53 date stamp on it. And we couldn't quite decide whether that was 1953 or 1853. Perhaps the latter...?
This is a scope image of just about my favourite Washita. You can't see these tiny neon pink specks with the eye, and pretty much all Washitas have a few, but on this stone they're everywhere.
God knows what it is. But I imagine it's probably what gives Rosy Reds their colour. My stone certainly has patches that are somewhat orange coloured.
I vaguely recall thinking it was probably 1953 because of the way the packaging was marked. But we were making the assumption that the stone was being used by medics because the company that sold it made and supplied medical equipment. The hone could just have easily been purchased for use by the cooks to sharpen kitchen knives. Who knows the vagaries of military contracts.
