So how slow is a black ark?

[A Cut Above]

I asked Mastro Livi what he uses and he said food grade mineral oil. I find that if I use to much oil I don't get the edge as if I just use a thin coat. Just enough to put a fine coating. I get a much better edge that way. It appears there needs to be some resistance between the blade and the stone. I use a convex black Ark and it does a great job much faster then a flat stone.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Yeah, Nam, I think I understand now.

You CAN actually go from a convex finished edge to a flat stone, but you'd have to remove steel to change things from the way the edge was on the convex, to the way it conforms (or fails to conform) to a flat stone.

And I think that explains why, when we get a razor supposedly shave ready from Solingen/Thiers, it does not really work for us. Because they have all been finished on convex stones back at the factory. Every single one of them. And since we all have flat stones, we have some adjusting to do before we can get them up and running again. The fact that we can successfully do so, shows that you CAN go from a convexed edge to a flat stone. It's what we do every time we buy a new razor. We just have to do a bit of work to make it fit our gear.

Every ten years it seems that this hobby explodes with excitement about some new method. The pasted balsa was the last one. And before that, other new systems. Convex arks are the flavour of the month now, and I wonder, as we buy these things, the new razors from Solingen/Thiers will start to seem better.

Nicely done.