I am working currently 4 different stones for finishing and want a place to post my findings. These stones very in quality and expense greatly so let see what I find. Obviously this is only my own experience and a limited experience at that. I will post pictures of my stones as well as method used with my personal result as well as my observation under a jewelers loop.
A peak at my blossoming stone collection. You'll notice they are all natural stone and primarily North America ARKIES. Rozsutec Natural Sharpening & Honing Stone - 8” (200mm) x 3 1/8” (80mm) x 1 1/4" (30mm) This is my first finisher it arrived pretty flat, but I lapped it myself anyways. In progression I lapped on 230 Grit SIC powder, 600 Grit SIC powder, then 1200 Grit wet/dry, and finally 2000 Grit wet/dry. End result after lapping is a uniform semi smooth surface. This particular stone is VERY slow which is surprising because it was actually quite easy to lap compared to my other stones. I can only assume this is due to the extremely small particulate GRIT? my results finishing on this stone are mixed. Although it does indeed produce a shave ready edge that surely passes the HHT without issue it did not produce (for me) a nice finished looking edge and in fact left a few very small chips in my edge. I have not tried using this stone with a slurry stone as was the recommendation of the vender. It is a fine quality, heavy dense stone that feels good in your hand and is large enough to not require a stone cradle for honing. I used water only with ZERO presoak as per the vender recommendation. I was never able to get my razor to really grab, even under running water it never really achieved that magnetic effect spoken of when nearing a perfect edge on a stone. Again this is only my observation and YMMV.
Dan's Translucent stone. High Quality, Translucent (Extra Fine) ARKANSAS Novaculite Bench Stone in a protective wooden box for safe storage No lapping needed. This stone arrived directly from Dan's perfectly flat and glassy to the touch. This stone is truly translucent allowing light to radiate through it easily. Quite possibly the prettiest of my stones. I would say this stone is moderately slow and produces a fine edge with a little patients. I was ably to achieve that magnetic (more details on how below) effect spoken of on this stone and the scratch pattern was a very shiny, reflective surface with minimum scratch pattern observed under my loop. Down side: These stones are a little on the pricier side considering what you get for your money. A fine stone indeed, if you have large hands like myself you will not like that well over $100 - closer to the $200 mark gets you a stone only 1/2" thick making a hone cradle a necessity. It was very easy to pass the HHT off this stone. I used the Dans hone oil with this stone which in my opinion is another down side. Wiping the oil off after use and getting towel lint all over the stone seems to me problematic as this lint can ball up and cause a person to accidentally skip their razor across its surface. This being such a HARD stone the last thing you ever want to do is accidentally skip your blade on it. After lack luster results with this stone initially I took this stone placed in a bowl with simple green and boiling water and allowed it to soak to remove all traces of oil. This was easy since the stone was nearly new and had not yet become truly saturated. Once I cleaned the stone I used it as a water stone. This is when this stone showed its true colors to me. The sharpening process speed up incredibly and I achieve the highly sought after magnetic effect under running water very quickly. It is my recommendation that this stone be used as a water stone. YMMV
Dan's Surgical Black High Quality, BLACK (Ultra Fine) ARKANSAS Novaculite Bench Stone in a protective wooden box for safe storage Same results found as with the Translucent. Believe it or not this stone is even smoother, and using oil it is a slow slow stone. But as stated above I decided to clean these stones since they were so new and after cleaning used then with water only. My results with this stone on water only were incredible. It sped up incredibly and after only a few passes my razor nearly came to a halt across the stone. The resulting edge was a near mirror finish with some fine striation. Again as mentioned above, these stones are awkwardly thin for the price making a cradle necessary. I highly recommend this stone be used as a water stone. YMMV
C12K. CHUG. PHIG. The always mysterious, omni potent PHIG! What can I say that hasn't been said before about this stone? Cheap? Yes. Unattractive? Yes. Hone ready? No. PissPoor packaging? Yes. ........BUT I have read and read and read about these stones and their varying results and after playing with my stones and getting a bit more comfortable with the idea of honing I decided to dive into the world of PHIG. This stone arrived anything but flat. The surface was reminiscent of a textured tile. I through it down on the 230 SIC powder and went to work, and work, and work, and work. I had to rinse my lapping plate repeatedly to get this thing flat. It mudded up on the plate very fast leading me to believe it was in fact a soft stone. I went on to lap with 600 SIC, 1200 wet/dry and finished on 2000 wet/dry. The end result is a baby but smooth surface. Flawless to the touch in every way. The price for what you receive can not be argued with $40.00 gets you a slab of working material. Once lapped I soaked the stone for about 20 minutes before placing my razor on the stone. So with $40.00 a bunch of lapping and finishing I have a stone that finishes Faster than any of the above mentioned stones. The edge under my loop looked to be on par with the Surgical Black Arkansas, but I found it quite strange that I achieved these results but never even came close to experiencing the almighty magnetic effect on this stone, hmmm. Again YMMV. It passed the HTT with flying colors. I have not used this stone with a slurry stone, but used only as a finisher I would say I may have gotten lucky and scored a winner PHIG. It is my opinion that the stone I received is definitely on par with the end results of the Surgical Black at 1/5th the price and well over twice the material a good deal in deed. I doubt however this is a lifetime stone like an Arkie. this is definitely a softer material. My 2 faves at this point would be the PHIG and the Surgical Black. I will now move on to acquiring some other finishing stones, any recommendations are welcome. Like I have stated before I am a beginner and only wish to pass on information at this point as a POV for beginners. All 4 of these stones easily produced shave ready edges. The Roz at about $79.00 shipped is a good deal and should last a life time. The Dan's Arkies while not quite large enough for the money will last a lifetime and have a feel to them when honing that I find calming and a joy to use. The PHIG at $40 add $5 for lapping supplies is a great deal. If you get lucky and score a winner you have a stone that if used with a slurry stone can be used from 1K on up to the described 12K finish, but I doubt that this stone will be a life long stone, and honing on it was just kinda going through the motions for me. I was looking for the magnetic result and never got their on mine. For me achieving that sticky blade to hone is part of the GOAL and not being able to score a GOAL made honing with the PHIG a little boring to me. I will however be keeping this stone forever as it gave the best bang for my buck and will not break my heart to travel with it if it happens to take a scuff or two.
So next up will be a 15K Welsh Slate from AJ. Should be arriving in a couple weeks and we will have a little fun with it. I'm thinking on maybe producing a few videos featuring all these stones from the perspective of beginners only along with my personal experience with each. I will eventually move on to Belgians, Vermio, and any other stone over time I can get my hands on under the $100 mark. I feel I should clear one thing up. None of my stones (even the ARKIES) cost in excess of $100 each. I picked them up from the specials link on the Dan's website. If you've ever wanted one of these SPECIALS but were afraid that they may be inferior I can attest they are not. Each of my purchases has been of high quality. So many stones to play with, so little money.
Word of advise. These are hard stones, and one side is lapped more than the other. You need to figure out which one. Then you will need to spend some time lapping this stone. I finished all of my Welsh Stones with 320 grit wet/dry, which allows them to cut metal well enough.
Thank you sir for the advice. I'm hoping to catalog an entire collection and information of as many stones as I can for under $100.00
Ok so I have a Belgian Yellow Coticule coming from Superior Shave, a supposed 12-15K Welsh Slate finisher from AJ off a popular auction site, and a Thuringian from Germany. Once these arrive we shall start having fun. I will start my complete evaluation over with all the stones. All things being equal every stone costing under $100.00 my goal will be to ascertain which stone for under $100.00 gives the best post bevel finish for the beginner straight shaver and honer. I can use your help here with laying out what the test should consist of. What questions are we asking here and what are the answers we are looking for? Below are pictures of the 3 new expected stones. I cant lie. I'm really excited about the Cotie. I also am eyeballing a JNAT on An Etsy page thats only $115 with a nagura stone. At this point I have spent my limit for this project and am like I said looking for any help in making up a checklist of what we want to look for in these stone and what questions we are looking to answer.
Me Personally..I Woudnt Let Water Near My Arkie..In Fact I Just Came off My Surgical Black Arkansas Tonight..I Always Use Gun Oil..I Only Use Mine as a Finisher Mind..I Plonk Down a 16 K Synthetic Edge & it Finishes in Jig Time..Less Strokes Less Scratching..I Use an Even Thicker layer of Oil for My Last Strokes..Using a Lot of Circles & Swooping Strokes Cuts Down the Time with X Strokes to Finish.. Billy..
Yeah I've heard this argument, which is why I offer the obligatory YMMV. I suspect every batch of hones respond similar to the stones within that certain batch, but every batch may have small variances. I also am definitely NOOB and as such I may be subjecting myself to over-info. I at times find my brain spinning with all the options of stones and methods per stone. I think what I am going to do for sake of this showdown is use each stone exactly as prescribed by the vendor.
I almost forgot to mention. Each stone for the sake of this evaluation has it's very own GOLD DOLLAR 66 unopened and factory dull. We may just let these butter knives tell the story for us. If all things being equal, 1 NOOB, 1 dull GD66, 1 hone. And I really think I will use every stone only as intended by the Manu. Vendor.
Scott.. @DaltonGang is Bang on about the Lapping as Well..Mines is Like Another Stone after Lapped through to 1000 Grit..Smooth as Glass.. Billy..
+1 the 15K took forever to lap with sand paper and a norton flattening stone, hopefully you have a diamond plate. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I will be using 230 grit Silicon Carbide, then 600 grit Silicon Carbide, then 1200 grit wet dry and probably 2000 grit wet dry for a glassy finish.If its too slow I may go back down to 1200 grit. Wish me luck. I do need the exercise.
