Waterstone & Ark Joint Improvement

[TexNat]

Passing along something that has been working nicely for me.

When my higher grit waterstones need flattening, I have started working them on my black and translucent Arks.

The Arks certainly are quite capable of flattening a waterstone.

Conversely, instead of using a coarse flattening stone and washing fine grit down the sink unused, the waterstone polishes the surface of the Arks used for finishing.

I use one side of the Ark for the flattening and polishing and leave the other side finished with an Atoma 1200.

The benefit of using waterstones rather than “burnishing” with a chisel or similar object is the stone still retains the ability to cut rather than just smoothing/polishing metal.

A good flow of water is required to keep the stones from locking up. That’s a hint learned the hard way.

 

[captaincaed]

That’s a clever and efficient trick, right on!

 

[Alum of Potash]

I digress a little, but are you talking about a very brief lapping session with the Atoma 1200 to refresh the Arkansas stone's surface? And how often are you doing this? Every time?

 

[TexNat]

AoP,

As needed, I flatten my Arks with an Atoma 140 plate, then finish and stop with the 400 on the soft, 600 on the hard, and 1,200 on translucent and black Arks. For this purpose, mineral oil seems to work better than water for washing the plates as needed to remove material.

As noted above, lately I started flattening my 5k and higher grit waterstones on one dedicated side of black or translucent stones.

The waterstone polishes the finish to a finer surface than the side finished only to 1,200.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Thanks. The reason I'm curious is that I have used a dedicated DMT steel lapping plate (90x-120x) to lap a black hard Arkansas, and the Arkansas stone quickly trashed the dedicated lapping plate (even though it was advertised as being able to lap Arks). Since then, I've stuck to SiC powder in the 80x to 320x lapping stages on a flat plate, followed by w/d sandpaper for 600x on up as needed, and this has worked well for lapping.

That said, my understanding is that the diamond bonding is different on the Atomas, which may be why they can hold up to things at the early stages. My interest is in refreshing the surface of the Arks, which is why I am wondering how often you take the "true hard" Arkansas stones to the 1200. From your remarks, I understand that you are leaving one side of the "true hard" Arkansas lapped at 1200x, presumably for a fine "sharpening" side, and the other is lapped to 1200x but used to lap synth water-stones, thereby creating an even finer "burnishing-but-still-cutting" side for razors as a by-product. That "burnishing" side would only be refreshed by continuing to lap synth water-stones. Do I have it right?

Edit: As far as the use of mineral oil goes, are you saying that you use it during the lapping of Arkansas stones with the Atomas, or for removing material that is on the plate after a honing session is over? I would think that no trace of oil should be there when dealing with synth water-stones.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Also, what's with the fissuring on the surface of the hone as pictured?

 

[TexNat]

That was a waterstone that came in a lot of stones. Used it for the photo because it was a good color for a photo. I use it with knives, but not razors. I think it is a Naniwa 6,000 traditional based on color, grit size, and the serial number stamp.