Good Karma

[Koop]

Our next door neighbors are elderly. I help them out with a few minor things - I take their trash and recycling bins out on trash day and put them away. Stuff like that. Recently, he asked me if I could sharpen a carving blade for him - he's a wood carver and makes these cool figurines. No problem, I fixed him up.

Today, he said he had something for me. He had an old cardboard box with duct tape on both ends. In circa 1950s font it said "A Cutting Tool Is No Better Than It's Edge." Inside was a Norton Hard Arkansas HB6 translucent stone. It's marked with a Bear logo. I don't know anything else about it - he's had it so long he doesn't remember where or when he got it. It was only used a couple of times, he said he didn't have the patience to try to sharpen anything with it. I checked it with a straight edge - it appears to be flat. I'm pretty jazzed about this!

If you know anything about the Bear Brand Arks, I'd love to hear what I have here.

 

[LJS]

It’s a very nice Norton stone. Great find

 

[Legion]

Nice one. Looks near NOS. That's a score and should be a nice razor stone if you dress the surface and chamfer the corners a little.

 

[captaincaed]

It’s a wonderful gift. They can put some of the best edges on a razor of any stone around. They’re slow, require care. In my opinion not much good for anything BUT razors.

Norton of course bought Pike, and also merged with Bear/Behr Manning. They were known for owning the best mines, and branding the best Arkansas novaculite. It ought to be a nice stone.

Pro-tip. Seal the label with a lacquer of choice (do your research first). Cleaners like simple green with strip that label very easily, and you’ll likely end up cleaning the stone with some detergents since its a stone that works its best magic with oil.

You can see the big brother of your stone, and a slightly older one with all three companies names on the label.

 

[Herrenberg]

Translucent Arks like that one are also excellent for deburring knives -- especially handy when you're already sharpening that knife on an oilstone.

 

[LJS]

In my opinion not much good for anything BUT razors.

Not to be contrary or argumentative, but I find them very versatile and with many uses. Pressure is the key. Most any ark like that can remove a lot of metal quickly on skews, chisels, plane blade, etc. and leave a mirror finish at the same time. Instead of “grit progression” like we do with our razors, you instead have a “pressure progression” starting very heavy and finishing very lightly. They work great like this on tools and other edges but it is not an effective use for razors like that! But if you don’t use pressure you are correct, they are slow going.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yup, when I first started razors, I maintained a single razor for 10 years with a stone just like that.

Mark a grid on one face with a sharpie and sand it on a sheet of 600 Wet & Dry, that will tell you how flat it is.

You are flat when you can completely remove all the Sharpie grid in less than 10 laps. A pencil grid will wash off with the slurry and the stone is no- where near flat. Sharpie will not.

Nice neighbor, that stone will keep carving tools sharp, buy him a pocket diamond plate to keep his carvers sharp, that and a pasted leather strop will keep him carving, Diamonds or Chrome Oxide.

 

[Gamma]

Norton Bear Brand logo, post Behr-Manning absorption. Could be late 50s, likely 60s. Good stone.

Lots of knives and tools have been sharpened on translucent Arks, they're not just a razor stone.
They work just fine with any number of lubricants, water, water+soap, oil, glycerine+water, etc.
When finishing a razor, I prefer water with a micro spot of dish soap.
Lapping flat and chamfering edges and corners is a good idea.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Nice stone. And, yes, seal the label with lacquer.

 

[Koop]

After soaking in dish detergent/water - I started in Simple Green, but heeded Captaincaed's advice and switched it - no oil was evident. I'm wondering if this stone was ever used. I marked a grid and worked on flattening with a diamond plate. The Sharpie grid lines were gone in under five minutes. This thing was basically flat. I lightly chamfered the edges, there are a couple of small chips typical of flint-like stone. I didn't try to eliminate those.

I'm looking forward to using it the next time I hone. I think I'll work up to my coticule as a pre-finisher, then lightly polish the finish on this stone.

 

[Wid]

That’s a great stone, congrats. I had the same exact stone for a while and was a fantastic finisher.

 

[Koop]

I honed my razor today and used the Ark. I learned a couple of things along the way. I used a pocket microscope (Carson Microbrite) to check my edge periodically at 60x to 100x. I started with a black Tsushima stone with slurry which I slowly diluted. Then went to a Rozsutec. I thought this would be a small step finer. Checking with the Carson, I was surprised to see the scratch pattern was coarser with the Rozsutec vs the Tsushima.

I went back to the Tsushima until I had erased the Rozsutec. Then I went to a coticule with glycerine/water. This left a pretty good looking edge. Finally I broke out the ark and polished the edge. Looking good.

I stropped on flax linen, then a cowhide strop from Berber and then a horsehide strop. I've read posts where people say you can't feel any difference from the razor with different leathers. But under the microscope I can see a difference. At least I think I can - the finer edge after the horsehide may be a function of the additional laps. If I stayed with the cowhide and did 30 additional laps, it may well have produced the same level of refinement.

I had my best SR shave yet with this edge. I'm still learning and need to finish with my DE razor - I'm not ready to SR shave my throat area and I'll never be ready to shave my head with one. Two passes with the SR, a little clean up and ATG with the DE and I have a DFS+.

 

[Christian1212]

Sweet setup! I love arkansas stones as they are great finishers. They are also great for bringing up the sharpness level of any other natural finisher you like.

 

[Tomo]

My favourite finisher. You can’t beat a Norton Hard Arkansas. Good size too. Once you flatten it, you’ll be set for life.