I did, with the Surgical Black Arkie. One side 600 grit Silica Carbide, the other side 1000 grit Silica Carbide. It works great. The 600 grit makes it a good progression, to the 1000 grit side. Definitely faster than just going straight to the 1000.
Most groups that talk about Arkansas stones talk about getting them lapped, then using an old carbon steel knife or chisel to burnish the surface until they are like glass. I did this on my Translucent, but have not done it on my black one yet.
I Never Felt the Need to Burnish My Translucent nor My Surgical Black for Honing Razors..I Just Lapped them..I Haven't Noticed Much if Any Difference on the Performance of Both Stones with Use..In Other Words..If there is a Breaking In Period as Some Suggest I Sure Haven't Noticed it.. Billy..
saved by the grait people´s republic of China again.cheap as chips and free shipping what grits are needed? think i am going to lap the underside of the Zulu aswell and has a Llyn idwall that could need some work too.
My Research on these Arkansas Stones Suggests that the Guys that Honed Heavy Tools on them Burnished them to Get Rid of the Smooth Glass Like Finish So they Would Cut Faster..Well..For Me..I Want to Retain that Glass Like Finish for Finishing Razors..Bearing in Mind these Stones are Mostly Used for Heavy Tooling.. Billy..
My understanding was the burnishing was actually putting the smooth glass finish on them, not removing it. I used some leatherworking tools to do it on my translucent. I did notice it slowed down the cutting, but made the finished edge finer. Now I am going to have to play with doing one side a little rougher and seeing if that speeds things up.
Start lower grit, to flatten it out, then progress from there. The final finish is up to you. I stopped at 1000.
Kitchen knife I sharpened a few weeks ago on my Arkansas progression bit me today. Have to say, it was a smooth cut. Didn't realize it was actually a cut until I started bleeding. Noticed again when I put aftershave in my hand and it got in the cut.
Ok... Progress Well I was going to share pics but the site seems to be having issues. But this black Arkansas is really hard. I've been at it a while now and I've almost got one side lapped with 220 grit. But it's as almost a race to see which one will wear out first...The piece of granite/marble or my arm. The Arkansas stone? It's gonna last much longer than either. Still got grid lines and I've been at it for 40 minutes. Most are gone...And they have been disappearing. But just one or two left.
Wax On, Wax Off. I feel for you, really. When one arm would tire, I would use the other. Also, refresh the grit, often, with sprinkles of water, often.
Now this is all with 220 grit... Whew. If you look close you can see the remaining grid lines on the arkie. I finally got the last on one side. The granite tile...I used the rough backside with all the tool marks. It's gonna be polished by the time things are done.
