Translucent question.

[Wid]

I've been doing a bit of finishing on this black translucent ark I recent acquired. I've been looking under a loop ( a cheap one) to see what kind of changes are made to the scratch pattern and honestly I don't see a huge difference.

The final edge is a hair popping son of a gun and the resulting shave is quite nice but should I be seeing the arkies own scratch pattern on the edge or does it just polish up what's already there?

When I use a coti and when I had a jnat you could feel the stone working but on this stone the only real feedback I get is a feeling of the blade wanting to stick to the stone.

So for the folks using these what say you?

 

[Krodor]

I have been wondering that for a couple weeks... I have zero to back me up, but my take is kinda like if you take a blob of playdoh and push down and away on it, kinda mashing it around. Kinda takes the scratches left from the other hones, and mushes them to smoothness without actually generating new ones. I'll get yelled at for saying so, but that's what goes on in my mind with my SB Arkie...kinda like a solid strop that you do edge first.

I never understood the difference between polishing and sanding and sharpening (just a matter of grit size) but use of the word "burnishing" kinda has this mush-it-around connotation I'm thinking of. That's (in my mind) why they are so slow and useless as anything but a finisher, since they only mush hard steel so much, and would never ever cut a bevel. But dang they can bring an edge to a new level of sharp...

 

[Drybonz]

When I use a coti and when I had a jnat you could feel the stone working but on this stone the only real feedback I get is a feeling of the blade wanting to stick to the stone.

Rick, I don't have any experience with Arkansas stones, but I have heard people say that they use the "sticking to the stone" with other types of hones to tell when they are done.

Are these Arkansas stones still being mined, or are the ones people have been talking about vintage stones?

 

[tomjr]

i have used the same one 4 about 10-15 yrs. i just know they deliver great shaving edges. i have yet to find anything that gives me a sharper, smother edge. i have not used jnats but have shaved with edges off them. so far the arki's have my vote.

 

[Wid]

Rick, I don't have any experience with Arkansas stones, but I have heard people say that they use the "sticking to the stone" with other types of hones to tell when they are done.

Are these Arkansas stones still being mined, or are the ones people have been talking about vintage stones?

They are still being mined. I was recommended by a couple folks I really trust to go to http://www.naturalwhetstone.com/productssharpening3.htm for a quality stone.

 

[Gamma]

The scratch pattern I get from trans/SB Arks is hazy and not unlike what I get from a few Jnats.
You can set a bevel on a soft Ark, and there's a member on this board that does so on a hard Ark. Trying to set a bevel on a trans Ark would, IMO, be an exercise in futility.
I would guess the polish on the bevel left by the preceding stone will have an effect on how the bevel looks after its finished on the Ark. Going from a full mirror polish of a 12k Nani, the haze from the Ark is instantly identifiable.

 

[Wid]

I just did an edge using 1um lapping film to get that mirror edge and then took it to the arkie. You can definitely see the "haze" coming from a mirror edge. I had to go outside to get some good light to see it.

 

[Gamma]

The scratch pattern is there yet I never get any metallic swarf off of those stones. Nada.

 

[Wid]

The scratch pattern is there yet I never get any metallic swarf off of those stones. Nada.

I haven't seen any either.

 

[Gamma]

Probably means something eh?

 

[paco664]

analyze it all you want boys.... it defies explanation...

the edges off the arkies are just spectacular... they defy logic...

 

[Gamma]

Not really - the explanation is quite simple. I was just sorta making a joke.

I do agree that the Arkie edge is spectacular.

 

[Wid]

Probably means something eh?

I reckon