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Dilucot / Trans Ark Progression
- Thread starter Blade4vor
- Start date
it is, Thanks Rob
indeed, I was a the shop and it was a spur of the moment thing trying to prop the phone on something, LOL But it was a good test to see how it would play on the forum. Will be better next time
Thanks Chris, and thanks for letting me use the Ark and Bengal, it was very nice
No , I use Smith's on both
Got it. I only use oil on my Soft and Hard Arks. The finer ones I use aqueous only. I guess I was influenced mainly by Keith Johnson in the beginning of my Ark adventure, and he despises oil. However, on that other forum there was a discussion of aqueous versus oil, and a member determined that the oil allows the metal filings of the swarf to be in suspension and wiped away better with oil than with water and soap. The suggestion was the swarf was less likely to clog the stone. Not much swarf on the Trans and Black, so much less of an issue. They never compared Smith's though, but a lot of guys use it.
I like the Smiths, then dilute once to this the medium and then water only. Has given me very nice consistent edges
I have been using Smiths for quite some time on my Trans. and Blacks. I am now following suite with the dilution and water only on my maintenance work, and I also used this method the last time I honed on the large bench stones. I have to say, the feedback from my smaller 2x8x1/2 maintenance Ark is very different than either my Trans. or my Black bench stones (which are similar to each other at first blush) when honing on water only. The small maintenance Black never gets to the point where it "sticks", as you call it, with water only. Water also tends to bead up on this stone compared to the larger bench stones as well. I went about 6 months doing maintenance honing with that stone using lather. I wonder if the un-saponified oil in the lather has soaked into the honing surface of that stone?
Interesting on the lather, both the trans and the Black that Chris lent me both stick like crazy on water only. I have never timed it mind you, but usually I estimate about 3-5 minutes on the stone with water only and it begins to stick, then another 1-2 mins to complete stick. I have never used lather on the arks, just the Smith's and water.