One more for the sharpening stone omnibus. The Dan’s Black arkansas, and a first quality one at that. Dan’s has the finest black stones I’ve ever seen. They’re not the fastest cutting, which is the way the rules work generally with good arkansas stones. In my book, a good washita does the step just below this well and faster than any “normal” oilstone that’s not a true washita, so I don’t have any soft spot for an arkansas finishing stone that’s a little coarse. They will all break in, but a fine one will continue to be fine even if you scuff it a little.
You can also consider the results of this to be identical to a translucent stone (I’ve had at least a dozen trans stones of decent quality). I’ve also had black stones from Halls, which I believe may be Preyda now – they are decent, but not quite as good as a first quality Dan’s and sticking with Halls, as that’s what I recall their label, the fineness was a bit less and on the ones I tried, a stray clump here or there could come out of the stone. I’ve not had that happen with Dan’s.
Translucent stones that pass light well are a safer bet – the lack of air space to allow light through that easily is hard to fake on a translucent and the only risk is whether someone may be selling you an entirely different stone. If a translucent stone only barely passes light, though, you may be in for something with more cutting power than you expect.
Arkansas stones leave a flatter groove, but are very sensitive to steel hardness. Their particles fight an even battle with 62 hardness iron carbides or steel matrix, or however you’d gauge it. Much lower than that (like a soft pocket knife) and even the stone used for this picture will raise a strong burr. If you run into that, light strokes to thin the wire edge and then go to a compound.
Compare this Picture to the 8,000 Grit Waterstone
It takes some time and skill to get to this finish level whereas the autosol picture, you just need to not have nicks beforehand. I think the day to day use of a trans or black arkansas stone for chisels and planes is more work than the results yield. Why? The washita cuts faster and nearly as fine, and as bloated as they have gotten in price, they’re still less cost (push the lilywhite aside) than a good translucent or black arkasnsas. And once you finish with the washita, have raised a burr and teased it off, a couple of swipes on softwood or medium hardwood with autosol or something similar and the edge is finer than the arkansas stone can create.
Back to the Dan’s black. 2x8x1 is my suggestion, but they’re expensive. It’s a lifetime stone if you don’t drop it. If the price is just too step, find a first quality dan’s combination with a soft stone for one half of the thickness and the subject stone here for the other half. The feel will be the same and 10 workmen would never go through half an inch of black arkansas stone in a lifetime. It’s just easier to use these stones when they’re raised in a case.
Which leads to one more point (aside from one more reminder that these will reward skill and you may have difficulty at first with them) – keep your stones in a case or covered. With the high hardness, one stray piece of anything lands on one of these and the first pull or push across it and you’ll have a tiny notch in your iron.
How long does a stone like this last planing when you take the time to finish the edge as above? about 85% of the footage planed that 1 micron diamond will yield. Yes, I know. It’s not the result that I wanted, either, but the discussion of properties changed in steel and the (other) unicorn to be chased at the edge to find miles and miles of planing beyond just finishing the edge, it’s not there.
But, these are nice stones and they do come into their own with really small tools and crisp corner carving tools.
One more thing (Columbo?) – if you bring a damaged edge to this stone, you won’t ever finish it. You can vary pressure and get different results, but if you lean on a tool too hard, you can actually create small chips along the edge. Firm to light pressure – but keep your feet on the floor. And – they’re not great stones for someone who uses a guide. All Arkansas stones reward touch. When you’re using a guide, you’ve mostly lost the ability to do that. Your skill comes in getting this stone only to work the tip of the tool. This skill is enormously aided by spending $15 for a very small USB hand scope (as in, hand held microscope) so you can see what you’re doing.
Of Making by Hand with Wood and Steel 
I’m still absolutely loving the Dan’s 8 x 2 x 1 black you sold me…was that a couple years ago? Before that, I used a Dan’s translucent 8 x 2 x 1/2 that Sierra trading post used to sell for about $40, much cheaper than the black stone. It did a very nice job, but the black stone is definitely a step up. There is a noticeable difference in how slowly the black stone cuts, which takes some getting used to. It takes some practice to get the most out of the stone…but that’s the way it is withdecent Ark stones.
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Probably the first 8 stones or so I got from dans (black and translucent) were all like the black stone that you have. To the point that I started wondering about people not getting good edges with some of the second-line stones that were dumped off on clearance at places like STP. And then, someone sent me one. It cut like a washita but had some translucence – and it only lost about half of its aggressiveness after sharpening a dozen things or so.
The really fine ones are the treat, and I’ve gotten all good stones like that from the dan’s page itself and when ordering once through a tool dealer who could order first quality (and about 15-20% off of dan’s list on their own page).
After 8 stones, you start to think you know something…..and then you get the 9th and find out you don’t!
I think a washita is so good at being slightly finer than a black or trans ark that if I’m going to use one of the latter, it has to be sort of in the specially fine class like the one you have, or very fine (like the bone colored one that I used for the omnibus) but still with some cutting power. When they’re a step off of very fine, then the thrill is gone.
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Out of curiosity, have you looked at the tay tools Arkansas stones? I have not been overly impressed with their products in terms of tools and so on and I’m not sure if these would be any better than their other offerings, but I thought it was interesting that there’s a new seller of Arkansas stones now.
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I haven’t. At some point in the past, I used one of the retailers that had a combination of stuff (low and higher quality) and got a combination stone that was really terrible. In talking about it to the guy, it was novaculite, but below second quality and never should’ve been sold. I asked him where the stones came from and he wouldn’t tell me, but he said that he could get dan’s stones, and I asked him for a quote on a first quality black 10×3 stone >1″ thick and he was able to get me a superb example for about 75% of the dan’s site price.
So, long story short, I don’t know what tay tools carries and I generally won’t buy retail stones unless they’re a known quantity, and I especially won’t buy second quality or cut price black arkansas stones.
I’ve seen the odd dan’s second here and there that was a trans stone and aggressive and wouldn’t settle in, either, so if you ask them what they have, make sure you confirm the stones are firsts performance wise.
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Hi, Matthew – follow up – I got my yahoo email to dig deep and find who i got the “bad” stone from and then made a Dan’s order.
It was, in fact, Taylor tools, but this was eons ago. Dan Taylor told me to keep the junk stone when I complained about it and gave me a refund, I guess a lot of people complained, and somehow that opened the conversation. I no longer buy endless numbers of stones like I used to, and have dispensed with a lot of my piles (still probably have more than 100 stones). but I still have the large black 10×3 stone that Dan ordered for me for a good deal, and am thankful to have it.
if you are a habitual buyer like me, every once in a while you finally get something that just has no shortcomings and that large stone (which I have for refurbishing razors) really literally comes up short *nowhere and in no aspect at all*. It’s superb.
I see a similar stone from dan’s now is $486. ouch. Five years ago, Dan Taylor was able to get me the same stone for less than 2/3rds of that and as a dealer, help me avoid getting a “full thickness” stone that was only just over 3/4ths and thus would sit low in a box.
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(the combination stones listed on the site don’t look promising to me – they’re not like dan’s firsts – the soft sides do look like they come from dan’s, but the sparing pictures of the black sides don’t show the kind of uniformity you’d want. )
there’s not much for free lunches in arkansas stones and if the cost of the fine ones is a problem, you’re better off getting a good washita or two and assigning one to fine duty and the other to harsher duty.
I don’t know if I have pictures set up on here in the omnibus, but a good settled in washita with a light touch can get really really close to the best hard arks.
A washita followed up by minimal autosol or buffing compound on wood will result in a better edge than you will get off of a black or translucent stone.
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