What's new

Lapping an Arkansas Black

I have finished my testing.
Just to repeat myself and what others have said... Don't lap with a diamond plate.

Now that is out of the way.
I found putting the ark on a piece of 1k grit W/D paper and working it around for 50 or 60 laps put a nice UNBURNISHED finish on it. A flat look. Not shiny in any way. I started with 600 grit then 800 grit. Burnishing also with each of those. So I have tested 6 different finishes on the trans ark. With Balistol and water and a blade that was finished on a 12k, I did around 200 laps very lightly. The shave was wonderful. I had a good level of smoothness and it kept its keenness.
This will be one of the ways I will finish razors. I have so many I like to have different finishings so now I know exactly what works for me and the trans ark.

BTW, I've never lapped mine. It was flat when I got it from Dan's.
 
Each stone will have its own personality so that will play into the needed surface preparation. I have a Soft that is fairly slow even when testing with a plane iron with good pressure so I might have to take that one down a little more than another soft for example.
I have a Hard that’s cutting a little faster than I like so I might have to bring that one up more than another Hard.
 
Yup, once a hard Ark is flat, the stone face can easily be altered with Wet and Dry, 600-2k and burnishing is pressure and burnishing tool dependent.

The good news if you burnish and slow the cutting aggressiveness too much a few minutes on wet & dry can get you back to a starting point.

Or make your stone, dual grit, finish one side to 600 and take the other side to a finer finish. Just mark the side of the stone with a paint pen, so you know which is which.
 
Top Bottom