I just touched up a DOVO, and two J.A.Henckels, on the Surgical Black, Arkie. All were very sharp, before the touch up, and now they are even sharper. I shaved with the Dovo tonight, and it was sharper than before, and smoother.
Depends what stone i come off of if i come off my 8 k I'll make slurry using my diamond plate and do about 60 xsttokes if i come off my 10k 40 xstrokes with glycern slurry with my black glycern with my translucent
Karl..My 1st Port of Call with a High Grit Capacity Hone like the Arkie is the Type of Steel I Am Using..For Example..For Me..Sheffield Steel Hollow Grinds Perform Kinda Optimally Around the 15 K Mark So I Will Plonk Down an Edge Using a 12 K Pre Finisher on the Arkie..I Will Take the Sheffield Off the Arkie or Finish when I have Deemed it to be around the 15 K Mark through Feeling the Edge..That's Just Down to Experience & Knowing what You are Looking for.. I Will Plonk Down a 16 K or Even a 20 K Prefinished Edge on the Arkie to Max Out the Stones Capacity on Say Harder Steel Japanese or Swedish Steel Razors because I Know they Perform Very Well around the 20 K Mark..In Other Words..Some Razors Excel with a Higher Grit Finish & Some Excel with a Lower/Medium Grit Finish.. Its Easy to Give Some Razors Too Much Gun with a Hone with a High Grit Finishing Capacity..The Wonderful thing about the Arkie is that its Such a Slow Cutter there are Definite Stages of Sharpness that Can be Felt on the Hone & by Feeling the Edge..You Max Out a Hollow Ground Sheffield or Some Softer Steel Thinner Grind Solingen SRs on the Arkie & they will be Uncomfortable or almost Unusably Sharp.. Billy..
To be honest, I don't have a set number. Usually at around 50-70 on the 600 grit finished side. I then check with the finger pad to see how easily it's cutting into the fingerprints. I might do some more if it needs more. Then I move onto the 1000 grit finished side and do about 50-100. I can usually feel it smoothing out some more. I will check with the fingerprints test again. It's usually so sharp by now, it can shqve a fingerprint off, As thin as I like, effortlessly. Sounds odd, but it seems to work.
Done properly, the Arkies definitely can put a stupidly sharp edge on most blades. You gotta love it.
One dilemma I'm having, because of the Arkie: Now I have a lot of razors that are being put into my "Daily Shave Worthy" rotation pile. Well, not exactly a pile, but an overgrown mug that can hold about 30 razors. I now need to whittle down this growing selection of razors, into a more selective lot. Or, get a bigger mug to hold them all.
Pretty soon my dresser will be covered with mugs full of razors, thanks to the SB Arkie. That's a good thing.
