Cleaning an Arkansas stone - another solution

[gumbo]

I have used oven degreaser (both spray foam and liquid), dawn, boiling water, etc.
Today I tried a new product to clean a translucent ark that was caked with old oil - it's called Lestoil. You can get it at your neighborhood grocery store.
5 minute soak and the oil came off with a quick rinse of water. The Ark is now naked and clean again
Just wanted to give a heads up that it's a fantastic de-greaser for stones with decades of built up oil on them.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. So what are you going to do with the surface now? Use it as is or lap it?

 

[Gamma]

Nice spin on getting the gunk off. Very cool. ty.

 

[tomjr]

thanks for the info.

 

[gumbo]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. So what are you going to do with the surface now? Use it as is or lap it?

I was struggling with this decision and haven't actually made it yet.
I don't know much about Arks, but I understand they work best with a nice high gloss on them (correct me if I'm wrong).
The stone looks reasonably flat, but I guess I should lap it. It's one of those Norton 4x2 (HB4 I think?) translucents in the green box.
Small but apparently good stones.

 

[Alum of Potash]

I was struggling with this decision and haven't actually made it yet.
I don't know much about Arks, but I understand they work best with a nice high gloss on them (correct me if I'm wrong).
The stone looks reasonably flat, but I guess I should lap it. It's one of those Norton 4x2 (HB4 I think?) translucents in the green box.
Small but apparently good stones.

Not sure about the high gloss, if knives and razors are doing the work. I have a trans., a vintage trans., and a black that are all plenty smooth with what I will call a sheen on the surface rather than a high polish. Never lapped the vintage stone. The modern trans. I smoothed straight out the box with an old set of carbon steel dinner ware. This worked pretty well and some will say to use it straight out of the box and others will say lap it all the way to 2000x for that bowling ball effect. The black I stopped after 400x and let the razors take over afterwards. Took a while, but now it delivers a great edge. Soft/med. Arks used for bevel setting you definitely want to remain matte and roughened on the surface. I use oil with my Arkansas stones (Dan's or a 1:1 blend of mineral oil and kerosene normally). Just a few drops to cover the surface. At 4 x 2, maybe just a couple, smeared across with your finger (I wear nitrile gloves). If the vintage stone is reasonably flat (doesn't have to be perfect), I'd give it a whirl with a razor you can spare close to being shave-ready (or already shave-ready) and see how the razor takes to it before lapping it. Might be a smoothness you want to stay with.

 

[oakeshott]

fwiw, here's what i did.

Seems pointless to have a finisher and not be certain that it's flat. With the exception of one SB that I got that had such a high gloss and tests out flat, I ran all of mine from a progression of 400 W/D to 2000. Then used some of my old kitchen knives on them for a while. You'll notice that the real improvement begins at 1500 grit, but the arks will eat up that sandpaper like cookies. I went through 2 sheets of 1500 and 2 sheets of 2000.

I also have one very, very old translucent with an unfinished bottom. More like a jnat than the commercial arkies you see. That had a chip on the honing side on one edge that I had to chamfer out. It was really deep and I was making no progress with sandpaper. Tried silicon carbide 220 and then 400 on it and it was like chamfering my chosera. Just ate away at it. Also used it to flatten an NOS surgical black and chamfer the edges. Works fine, but honestly am uncertain about how it leaves the surface. Seems that a lot of grit remains. It's all gone now, but be careful if you ever need to use this stuff. Also, a very little goes a long way.

btw, if anyone needs a spoonful or two, let me know. I have nearly a pound of each which I will never, ever use.

 

[PapaFish]

fwiw, here's what i did.

Seems pointless to have a finisher and not be certain that it's flat. With the exception of one SB that I got that had such a high gloss and tests out flat, I ran all of mine from a progression of 400 W/D to 2000. Then used some of my old kitchen knives on them for a while. You'll notice that the real improvement begins at 1500 grit, but the arks will eat up that sandpaper like cookies. I went through 2 sheets of 1500 and 2 sheets of 2000.

I also have one very, very old translucent with an unfinished bottom. More like a jnat than the commercial arkies you see. That had a chip on the honing side on one edge that I had to chamfer out. It was really deep and I was making no progress with sandpaper. Tried silicon carbide 220 and then 400 on it and it was like chamfering my chosera. Just ate away at it. Also used it to flatten an NOS surgical black and chamfer the edges. Works fine, but honestly am uncertain about how it leaves the surface. Seems that a lot of grit remains. It's all gone now, but be careful if you ever need to use this stuff. Also, a very little goes a long way.

btw, if anyone needs a spoonful or two, let me know. I have nearly a pound of each which I will never, ever use.

What did you use as a substrate for the SiC?

 

[oakeshott]

What did you use as a substrate for the SiC?

The same $5.00 marble tile used for lapping with wet/dry sandpaper. It's no longer smooth. Flat, yes, smooth no. The typical recommendation according to my research was 1/4 inch glass. Not sure it would hold up any better though.