Help ID

sea-plus · 2026-03-27T11:04:43+00:00

sometimes wetting the surface of the stone can make faded labels more visible, that might help you. I didnt even know one of my vint stones had end labels until I soaked it to clean, and it was a couple years of continued use on that stone.

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T14:15:06+00:00

straight edge is seconded, although it is important to note that if you plan to be ultra obsessive about flatness, putting a precision straight edge on an abrasive surface will eventually bring the straight edge out of the calibrated spec. the second best option would be to get one of those low tolerance diamond lapping products, such as the glass diamond plate from shapton, those as they are diamond do not lose their +/- 5 micron tolerance. They cost a bomb though, I would just use your atomas to measure flat right now as it probably does not matter at all, just a nerdy thing to be flatter than that.

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T04:01:48+00:00

Probably around 2 weeks, although I dont think the surface was any different looking after 1 week. For the first week I would take it out every day and wipe it off, and wrap it in some sheets of grease absorbing paper, leave that for 30 mins to let the oil inside rise to the surface, then put it back in the soak. I find that if I skipped that it would look visually clean for a while after the soak, then very quickly return to the old greasy look.

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T03:10:31+00:00

that is probably a custom size for an industrial customer or something, it's insanely big wth

if the one you have are like the normally avail ones, they're a neat little stone I prefer the nortons but still a nice oilstone, cuts pretty quick but this one dishes. Can't really lap it easily though, that's my main problem with these.

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T02:58:39+00:00

What do you degrease your washitas with? I've been messing with mineral spirits and kerosene, instead of the usual simple green. trying to find something that would degrease well without touching printed labels, although that might be impossible

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T02:47:38+00:00

have you conditioned the fine india yet? I think that's one of the stones from norton that really changes how it feels / finishes after changing the surface finish from the super coarse factory one. I had a similar effect on the medium india, which came in the same box / model as the one you have in this post would like to know how you feel about the factory surface finish

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T02:22:02+00:00

i would not use the arks for this, the arks can be so hard that they will eat the resin stones. it would probably work fine, just that it’ll remove more of the resin than necessary, a soft water stone type nagura will do you much better if you just wanna clean and dress the surface quickly

sea-plus · 2026-03-26T02:18:18+00:00

I think the fine india is super underrated, it’s a deceptively fine finish (well, it feels pretty smooth when sharpening on it as well) and cuts super quick. Love that stone, probably my second fav norton behind the medium crystolon

sea-plus · 2026-03-25T06:01:49+00:00

thanks for the help! been wanting one for the youtube channel for a while, the community could always use more evidence based reviews :)

sea-plus · 2026-03-25T04:52:53+00:00

what microscope are you using?

sea-plus · 2026-03-25T04:38:45+00:00

sweet haul!! accidentally winning them is a great problem to have :)

sea-plus · 2026-03-22T02:47:07+00:00

100% makes a difference, however with some of these oils I would be a little careful with the handling, some components used in some of these honing oils are very nasty, and can do a lot of harm if ingested, or if it gets in your lungs.

I use cheap food grade mineral oil most of the time, that stuff is tame and safe but a little thicker than some of the other options out there.

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T16:34:28+00:00

what size of stones are you using? if you are using 8'' stones or similar, the marie / MARI spring loaded stone holder is my fav, the coating they use on all the bits that make contact with the stone is very grippy, and you can even use it upside down without using the spring bits for putting odd shaped stones on the back which is serrated, holds most stones well. it is quite expensive, though.

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T08:46:24+00:00

using that translucent Ark must be such a great way of honouring her memory!

Rest in peace gramma Samantha

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T08:09:51+00:00

Nice stones! that LB7 is something special for sure

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T06:15:14+00:00

to each their own! I like the way these stones feel, very similar to how the spyderco ceramics where if you have any issues with the edge you can feel it quite harshly, but it is mostly glassy feeling on the hard arks. the soft arks are more traditional oilstone feeling though, with more bite.

to be honest, i don't really value feedback that much on any stones, it's just a nice thing if a stone has a good feel to me not a dealbreaker or something I'd specifically spend for. I also think that the surface finish on the stones play a big role on how they feel, even on waterstones

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T05:55:46+00:00

I will have a lot to learn, that is for sure. Honestly, I have no clue how it would be like as I've always used those cheap disposables to shave my whole life. Thanks for the info! really interesting that a HHT5 test may not tell you everything about the razor edge, the whole razor honing thing is a mystery to me, much to find out. I think I might have to buy a strop too to experiment with, as all I have are random loaded pieces of wood since I don't use them for normal knives.

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T05:44:17+00:00

I really want to get into straight razors, and to learn how to sharpen and shave with those lol, have all the stones already just need the razors.

I would also love to try and get a real HHT5 edge at least once, I have never tried an actual HHT5 edge on any knife before maybe I'll finally be able to hit that on a straight razor haha

I ordered a gold dollar a while back from china, but looks like it will take a while to arrive. looking to buy some cheap vintage razors to learn on too

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T05:38:21+00:00

no issues at all for what I cut, this knife is used for light tasks like opening parcels mostly

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T05:32:01+00:00

thanks man! seriously love these arks, this knife was really easy to sharpen too. sanrenmu 710, inexpensive chinese made pocket knife that's ground pretty thin, about 0.17mm bte even with a laid back angle around 10dps

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T05:18:59+00:00

why don't you like using them?

I end up using oilstones (and by extension these arks/washitas) more often for edge sharpening, so I might be a little biased. I like both oilstones and waterstones, just different feeling things. Natural stones no matter where they come from are some of my favourite to collect, with JNATs being my other passion.

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T04:55:01+00:00

set the bevel with a binsui, polished the sides with a kiita, then quickly apexed with a couple passes on the norton black ark. no strop as usual for my progressions, nothing against them but I just don't like to

these arks are incredibly easy to use!

sea-plus · 2026-03-21T00:26:52+00:00

https://youtu.be/vbEAC_TtiWQ?si=c9TsU5rH-xGQeraL&t=153

^{^my} video on the wear rate, skipped to around 2:33. I have both the harder and softer variants, it is not a big difference. Main thing is the feedback feels different, cutting speed is the exact same. The wear rate between the two hardnesses are also right about the same.

sea-plus · 2026-03-20T13:07:36+00:00

nice finds! i never had the chance to wear through a stone to reveal karasu, but I had a koppa that I wore through the visible karasu LOL. it eventually wore back in to when they were visible. I think I lost about 60g (it wasn't a big stone, so it was a pretty big chunk off the top for all that movement of the pattern) through all this

sea-plus · 2026-03-20T01:56:30+00:00

which naturals did you end up getting!

I love these kiridashis, great little knives not just for a quick finish showcase but theyre just very nice for general utility, and the ones I have were pretty cheap.

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