So, as said do not limit your choice of finish or honing fluid but try everything until you find what works best for your technique, stone, and razor. Oil can easily be washed off, post honing with dish soap and a Scotch Brite sponge or short warm soapy water soak.
Arks, finishing Arks are very stone and stone face dependent. The Advent of “Modern, Black Arks” really clouds finish results as compared to Vintage Pike/Norton stones. Lapping and stone finish are even more stone dependent with new vendor offering and their fast and loose marketing making Black Ark offering even more confusing.
A lot will depend on what your expectations from the stone are. For example, are you using it strictly as a final finisher, or in an Ark progression?
Taking a near mirror finish bevel to the stone can tell you a lot about each stone finish. I have taken polished bevels, no stria CBN or metal polished bevels to stones to test different stone finishes. 50-100 laps on a pasted strop will remove all stria from a bevel, then only the finish produced by the Ark face will be on the bevel, this can save you a lot of trial-and-error frustration, though it is still a bit of work.
Lately I have been moving to a coarser grit finish, using Silicon Carbide Crystolon and India stones. I still like burnished stones for a handful of final finish laps. My experiments and results are on Vintage Norton and AG Russell stones, your “stone” may deliver completely different results.
Varying pressure can also alter results, generally I use more pressure than most naturals.
Try it all.
Arks, finishing Arks are very stone and stone face dependent. The Advent of “Modern, Black Arks” really clouds finish results as compared to Vintage Pike/Norton stones. Lapping and stone finish are even more stone dependent with new vendor offering and their fast and loose marketing making Black Ark offering even more confusing.
A lot will depend on what your expectations from the stone are. For example, are you using it strictly as a final finisher, or in an Ark progression?
Taking a near mirror finish bevel to the stone can tell you a lot about each stone finish. I have taken polished bevels, no stria CBN or metal polished bevels to stones to test different stone finishes. 50-100 laps on a pasted strop will remove all stria from a bevel, then only the finish produced by the Ark face will be on the bevel, this can save you a lot of trial-and-error frustration, though it is still a bit of work.
Lately I have been moving to a coarser grit finish, using Silicon Carbide Crystolon and India stones. I still like burnished stones for a handful of final finish laps. My experiments and results are on Vintage Norton and AG Russell stones, your “stone” may deliver completely different results.
Varying pressure can also alter results, generally I use more pressure than most naturals.
Try it all.
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