Vintage Boxed Translucent Arkansas Straight Razor Hone Stone

Vintage Translucent Arkansas Hone Stone

This is a genuine vintage translucent arkansas hone stone for putting the final polish on straight razors.  Among these type of stones the translucent arkansas is of the highest grade - classified as Ultra Fine.  It has a misleading grit rating for a few reasons, that at first appears quite low to those not in the know.  Firstly, it is a natural stone and grit ratings cannot really be successfully applied to natural stones, except as a basis for comparison.  Second - and most importantly - these stones are not classified by grit, but by Specific Gravity.  The reason for this is that the abrasive grains are spread out at wide intervals in a coarser hone, and are very compact - and therefore more weighty - in aan ultra fine hone.  Used as a final polishing stone this hone will give a very sharp 'crispy' edge.  Most people that use them for razors use them with water, but they deliver better results if used with a very fine honing oil - but sewing machine oil or even diesel (smelly!) will do.

Unlike other translucent arkansas hones I have owned, this one has a slightly 'porous' or open-textured surface.  It does not affect honing, and may even be of help if the hone was used experimentally - some people paste them with chrome oxide or some other fine cutting medium and report excellent results.  The size of the hone cuts down on the number of laps you need to do - it is one of the longest of this type that I have seen.  It measures a fraction under 9 inches long by 2 inches wide by just under 1/2 inch thick (10mm).

I have lapped about 3/16ths of an inch off it - it was dished in the middle - and it must have been lapped before as the aperture in the box is too deep and I have had to pack it out.  Either that, or it is not the original box, but the length and width of the aperture are spot on.

It is lapped tolerably flat ready for use.  This took an enormous amount of time - around 3 hours, even using diamond plates and lapidary grit on a flat surface. he stone must have been used with oil for many years as it is quite saturated (the darker area in the centre of the hone is probably due to the oil content) - soaking in a solvent would help, but adding dish-soap to water will do if it is not to be used with oil.  In the last three pictures it is shown covered with water that has had some washing-up liquid added to it - it doesn't look wet, but it is!  Don't be persuaded by ignorant people who maintain that these hones are no good for razors without having tried them.  I have, and the results are excellent.  Even the italian exponent of the straight razor, Mastro Livi, uses one as his last hone - would he use one if it didn't work?  Of course not!  One caveat is that this is a very hard stone of the novaculite family - very hard wearing, hard to lap and slow in action.  It needs a lot of laps to produce a good edge.  I used to use a 6 inch x 2 inch one after a thuringian water hone to great effect, but had to use 50 - 100 laps on the translucent arkansas.  

Packaged weight will be around 1.25 kilos.