Thread: Honing stones

I came across a Wa****a and an Arkansas stones on my toolbench. Though they are not the 4,000/8,000 waterstone combo I've read so much about, would these do a proper job of honing or would they be a waste of time?

Sorry to say would better find another stones.
You can use them but there is better alternatives out there.GL

Could ya post pics?

Thanks,

Mac

Hi mateoyankee,

Yes, you most certainly can use your Arkansas stones to hone your razor with. (A Wash*ta is also an Arkansas stone.) I use them myself. I do my finish honing with a hard Arkansas, followed with a canvas, then a leather strop. I have also on occasion finished with a soft Arkansas, not much different from your Wash*ta.

Like hi_bud_gl wrote, there are indeed "better" stones available, which allow you to get the razor to a shaving edge a bit faster and will reduce the amount of initial stropping needed. But don't let anyone kid you, an Arkansas stone will do the job quite nicely.

Sincerely,
Jeff

Thanks very much. I've got a limited budget to work with and I'm trying to use everything around me without buying anything new. I'm about to attempt my first restoration of a Gate City blade (I've never heard of them before) before trying my hand at restoring my Wade & Butcher, which of course means I need to buy a million different grains of sand paper which isn't leaving me much money for a waterstone. All in good time. Thanks to everyone for the responses.

I no longer use my Arkansas stones for honing, even on my bench! They're too slow and too much can go wrong the longer you hone. There are lots better alternatives such as a Norton 4k8k if you're on a budget, belgians, shaptons, etc. BTW, everyone has an opinion on this based on what works for them so you'll have to experiment. It's fun to do.