Yes, Ark slurry is not very user-friendly. Proper (to your needs) surface prep can provide some pretty nice edges.
It’s a lot of work. Please let us know how the surface turns out!I'm doing surface work on an Ark now actually. Currently going through the 4th session of 400x SIC on 600x W/D.
Got to make sure you're plate is flat. I ground a glass plate down until it started convexing my stones so I flipped it but that's a short term solution because once the other side grinds out the glass will get really weak. I need to find a 1" Pyrex plate. That stuff is stupid hard. I hear steel cookie sheets work for a little while but you need to be sitting on something flat.It’s a lot of work. Please let us know how the surface turns out!
I’ve had some issues with the stones beginning to convex a little on SIC. How do you prevent that? I think the glass sheet that I was using started to dish out sooner than I was expecting….
You're saying you put your SIC powder on your sandpaper, right? I've read posts/ stories from "the day" that said carpenters would throw fine emry dust on washitas and hard Arks to speed them up. I need to buy a cheap fine India pocket stone that's really crappy and sheds grit to try as a slurry stone on on my black ark from Dan. I've raised diamond plate slurry, used jnats(pretty decent on a black ark), used coticule slurry(didn't like it), I use Tam slurry on novaculite all the time especially for tools. I've got a llyn idwal that will put the most aggressive/ clean tool edge I'm capable of making... if I make a thin Tam O'shanter slurry on top. For knives i don't notice too much difference between my darker ones and lighter ones if I'm making a slurry. I bet if you need a workhorse, India stone dust would be the ticket and the edge finish the combo would have would probably be pretty nice.I use a flat piece of marble or a granite reference block from woodcraft. Either one I check with a known machined straight edge across 6-8 directions. I put a piece of cubitron paper on top, then SiC powder. Then I do my work. All the rest is done at the coarsest grit I can find, usually 60.
If you don’t put down a guard surface, the powder will wear your reference surface. Different materials wear at different rates, but they all wear. If you use guard paper, the reference surface will stay flat orders of magnitude longer.
The cubitron backing is siliconized paper, and very durable. The ceramic grit cuts far longer than standard paper as a bonus. ( Jonathan Katz Moses did a big sandpaper shootout if you want data. My experience matches his.) I do the bulk of the work on a worn piece, then do what @H Brad Boonshaft recommended. If not flat, I replace the worn guard paper with a fresh sheet and work without powder, using the whole sheet as equally as I can. Then repeat the flatness test.
I use paper like it doesn’t cost money. Especially on the coarse step. Once the ark is flat, it’s flat basically your whole life. Don’t need to skimp.
Once it passes 2-4 flatness checks on fresh paper, I start moving up grits. Be creative with how you repeat the flatness check, altering angles and reference block positions. Try to fail the flatness test. If you manage to fail, more work or a better reference surface is needed. If you fail to fail (hah), then you’re done, and only then.
The following grits take much less time each. The most important step is the coarsest.
Following steps are the same, but with finer grits. Good to try to fail the flatness test in the middle of the grit progression to double check.
If you ever fail the flatness check, go back to step 1. It hurts, but you’llbe happier with the results. A not 100% flat stone CAN be used, but you need to know what you’re about. Dead flat is easier for a beginner (like me). And dead flat is easier to achieve than you think. You just need to be brutally honest with yourself about your progress and try to fail. When you can’t fail a flatness test, welcome home.
Put on a good movie with noise canceling headphones and get into a rhythm.
Here’s what I did. Ymmv.
Lapping an Arkansas in excruciating detail
Inspired by this thread, I thought I'd post up how I flatten and dress a stone. I'm dressing a hard black Ark with unknown branding, a $20 used tool store find that was finished very rough, maybe 36 grit on all surfaces when purchased. I was hoping I might luck into something like Keith...www.badgerandblade.com
The cubitron backing is siliconized paper, and very durable. The ceramic grit cuts far longer than standard paper as a bonus.
Translucent stones though, I have come across about 6 different 'types' - they all seem to wind up taking things to the same place though. There are differences in feedback, look, etc. But stones at that level of density seem to just peak similarly enough where the end results are kissing cousins regardless of history.
Where’s a good lapidary wheel when you need one?I use a flat piece of marble or a granite reference block from woodcraft. Either one I check with a known machined straight edge across 6-8 directions. I put a piece of cubitron paper on top, then SiC powder. Then I do my work. All the rest is done at the coarsest grit I can find, usually 60.
If you don’t put down a guard surface, the powder will wear your reference surface. Different materials wear at different rates, but they all wear. If you use guard paper, the reference surface will stay flat orders of magnitude longer.
The cubitron backing is siliconized paper, and very durable. The ceramic grit cuts far longer than standard paper as a bonus. ( Jonathan Katz Moses did a big sandpaper shootout if you want data. My experience matches his.) I do the bulk of the work on a worn piece, then do what @H Brad Boonshaft recommended. If not flat, I replace the worn guard paper with a fresh sheet and work without powder, using the whole sheet as equally as I can. Then repeat the flatness test.
I use paper like it doesn’t cost money. Especially on the coarse step. Once the ark is flat, it’s flat basically your whole life. Don’t need to skimp.
Once it passes 2-4 flatness checks on fresh paper, I start moving up grits. Be creative with how you repeat the flatness check, altering angles and reference block positions. Try to fail the flatness test. If you manage to fail, more work or a better reference surface is needed. If you fail to fail (hah), then you’re done, and only then.
The following grits take much less time each. The most important step is the coarsest.
Following steps are the same, but with finer grits. Good to try to fail the flatness test in the middle of the grit progression to double check.
If you ever fail the flatness check, go back to step 1. It hurts, but you’llbe happier with the results. A not 100% flat stone CAN be used, but you need to know what you’re about. Dead flat is easier for a beginner (like me). And dead flat is easier to achieve than you think. You just need to be brutally honest with yourself about your progress and try to fail. When you can’t fail a flatness test, welcome home.
Put on a good movie with noise canceling headphones and get into a rhythm.
Here’s what I did. Ymmv.
Lapping an Arkansas in excruciating detail
Inspired by this thread, I thought I'd post up how I flatten and dress a stone. I'm dressing a hard black Ark with unknown branding, a $20 used tool store find that was finished very rough, maybe 36 grit on all surfaces when purchased. I was hoping I might luck into something like Keith...www.badgerandblade.com
It’s a lot of work. Please let us know how the surface turns out!
I’ve had some issues with the stones beginning to convex a little on SIC. How do you prevent that? I think the glass sheet that I was using started to dish out sooner than I was expecting….
Clam Broth is that grey/trans/glassy look, old time barber shops used have a lot of 'clambroth' glassware for storing all sorts of stuff...to me, real clambroth has to have a slight 'grey' component in it, but you'll find people calling white glass 'clambroth'. I don't agree with that practice.Exactly what color is Clam Broth?
Which one do you use, if you don't mind saying? I've only used a couple different wet/dry papers, but there seems to be a significant difference in how they cut.I get a particular 3M 600x paper
I'll check later - I think all 3M w/d is good, so I don't think that it matters which one so much as using the same one all the time adds to the consistency factor.Which one do you use, if you don't mind saying? I've only used a couple different wet/dry papers, but there seems to be a significant difference in how they cut.
Appreciate it. I currently have 3m w/d, but I've only used it once so I don't have a real clear picture of how it acts. But it seems, possibly, less aggressive than the off brand that I had got at the hobby store.I'll check later - I think all 3M w/d is good, so I don't think that it matters which one so much as using the same one all the time adds to the consistency factor.
02036 / 213QWhich one do you use
Thanks. Looks like I have the AlOx version at the moment.02036 / 213Q
Lightweight black Alox paper
For straight up 600x lapping, no SIC involved,
02000 / 413Q
Lightweight black SIC paper
I use the 3m stuff mostly because it lasts.
The cheap paper from the hardware store shreds too fast.