I Cracked the Riddle of My Best Ark

[duke762]

I've got one Ark that has been a standout for years. It improved everything I brought to, it even improving my other Ark edges. I don't use it much except before family functions and when I want the crispest looking shave I can achieve. I've always call it my "cheating stone" and don't use it much because it really did fell like cheating some how. I have quite a few Ark finishers and set out to find out why this particular one, stands out. All my Ark finishers should perform the same. The 3 stones I had in rotation at the time to compare it to were a 30's - 40's era Norton HM8 Trans, a Norton Black HB8 with blue side stamp, and a 30's - 40's era HM6 Trans/Black which is the stand out among the 3. Why....?

Working on the assumption they should all finish basically the same I started working with the 8 inch stones. All my Arks are lapped and dressed the same so it should be a fair comparison....Right? Must be my honing...

So I finished all my razors I had in rotation on the 8 inch Black for a while. Real nice but not quite there yet. Real close but not quite.

I did the same with the 8 inch Trans. Same results...

So close but not quite, Time went by. I thought about it for a long time ........

And then one day I had my straight edge out.....Want to guess which of the 3 stones was the absolute flattest?

 

[Seelector]

It must be too early in the morning. I read your thread title as "I cracked the MIDDLE of my best ark" and had a sinking feeling in my gut as I read through your post. Congrats on not destroying your ark!

 

[captaincaed]

Omg I’m glad it wasn’t just me. My heart broke for half a second.

But really, moral of the story was “flat is best?”

 

[Steve56]

Yep, I ‘saw’ that too.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Do you know origin of the "cheating" Ark?

Have you measured the specific gravity of the four stones?

I ask because my uneducated guess is that the "cheating" Ark is more dense than the vintage Norton stones. Measuring the specific gravity is easy:

 

[Bowmaker]

I have a little hard ark that is less than perfectly flat that produces nice edges, but it's flaw is a dip in the middle about the size of a dime that the razor harmlessly rides over, I just tired of getting it flat.
Stones need to be flat to hit the apex and no more than that. We can fudge on a knife but not a razor.