And I wasn't saying anyone here was snubbing I'll make sure in the future to make my point little more clear easier to understand

..Its a Personal Judgement of Taste..

Billy..

Yes, to a point. I started out with e the least expensive I could find, that could get the job done. I even went inexpensive, relatively, with my Welsh Slate Stones, and was very surprised by them. I learned to use what I had, and they all serve me very well, I eventually bought an Arkie Surgical Black, and that was the icing on the cake. If I had to do it all over again, I would have invested a little more in a better Bevel setter. The King 1k is a good stone, but it's a slow cutting stone. Sometimes you need to move a lot of steel when setting a new bevel.

If you could find a bester 1200 that's the ultimate bevel setter but it's probably not cheap I have a amakusa binsuito stone from Japan costed me all of 20 shipped to my door does a wonderful job at bevel setting

I follow that up with my 4000 bester my 8000 syderco ultra then my 10000 stone then my translucent and wow happy days are here again lol

I don't believe in spending to much on a bevel setter cause technically that's something you do once after your bevel is set that one k sits a king 800 or 1 k should be good enough again guys this is just my opinion I'm not trying to teach I'm just sharing my experience I love this site lots of great info and the fact that Glenn and Lynn or hear somewhere is awesome

OK...
I just got an email from a manufacturer of these Arkansas stones.

He said that the translucent is the same grit count as the black but that the translucent is more rare...And more expensive due to the rarity of supplies.
I just ordered one from this place due to the offering of the same product as others but about 1/3 the price of Dan's whetstone. Looked like the same box and everything but instead of beautiful pics in a showroom they had pics of a dust covered guy with hearing protection working on a stone cutter and a mess of stone around his feet. A little lady assembling boxes with cut stones and etc.
Then the metal warehouse type building with muddy pickup trucks surrounding it like they was proud of the place.

Now they did offer translucent Arkansas stones but they were about 3 times the price for a black one.

They said that it will be processed in one to three days and then shipping will take up to a week.

I ordered the 8 x 3 x 1 (thick) black novoculite stone. All total $66.15 for the one I ordered.

I'll let y'all know how things turn out from these guys.

I fully agree. This should stay on point. Extolling the virtues of this fine finisher. Sharing experiences and tips for anybody interested in them.

Tom


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That is a great price. I am interested in how flat and good of finish the face is.

Tom


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I'm very interested in how flat these stones are, too. I haven't heard anyone ordering a stone from where you ordered yours.
Mine wasn't very flat, and it took a while to get it there. But, it was inexpensive. If I knew how much of a pain it was to flatten these, I would have paid more and bought it from Dan's.

Has anyone tried a true hard ark I heard there translucent as well

True hard black and Translucent are the highest specific gravity stones. Therefore they are the ones to give the finest finish. The Blacks are a step below the True Black and Translucent. They will not give as fine of a finish theoretically.

You can get some useful info on Dan's page here https://www.danswhetstone.com/information/stone-grades-101/


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Great info ty

The Difference in Performance Between a Surgical Black & Translucent is Marginal if Any..The Surgical Black is Just Maybe a Little Harder..Maybe..The Translucent Stones Can be More Expensive Due to Popular Demand because they Look Prettier..

Billy..

What does everyone use on there arkies water oil ?

Lansky honing oil

I Use Gun Oil..

Billy..

For now, vintage Smiths Honing Oil.

I use Smith's honing solution for the most part, mainly because I store these with waterstones, and don't want to contaminate them. I have also used just water with a little dish soap in it on the translucent for a quick touch up.

Looks like I use Gatco on my translucent Arkie.