Apache Hone questions

Old thread, but I wanted to chime in on the to-soak-or-not-to-soak question. Just received my stone today, and it looks and feels great to the touch. Placed some water on the surface and was surprised by how quickly it was absorbed. So then I tried soaking the stone for around 5 minutes in a bowl of water. Afterwards, the water on the surface did not soak in as quickly. From this, I gather that soaking is beneficial here. Maybe a drop or two of dishwashing detergent will keep things on the surface with a non-soaked stone, but I'm inclined to soak it with plain water for starters.

There is a reason for that. I would bet money you have one of the darker/grey versions of the stone, right? Those can do with a short soak. It's pretty pointless to soak the beige/tan version. They are so hard and nonporous that they don't really take up any water... at least mine is anyway.

I have 2 a darker and another much lighter beige. Neither of them seem to absorb much if any water. Try it and see. You may have some unique characteristic to that stone. Im guesing it will be fine though!

Thanks for the remarks guys. The one I have is what I will call a light grey. It has some red iron inclusions running across the surface. Also two yellow blushes on one side. Soaking it in advance is not a problem for me, if that's what needs to be done.

Just tried some standing water on the surface and it mostly stayed there, with some immediate absorption around the edges. Surface darkens depending on how long the water has been there, so I'd say there is some absorption going on here. A most beautiful stone in any case--sort of like a coticule, but with a different coloration entirely.

Here's a description of it from the Natural Hones website: http://naturalhones.com/product/6-of-7-art-like-beauty-4-25-x-2-12-x-38-apache-strata-hone-id-as0172/.

It's thin in the palm, so I'll probably end up making a palm-sized support out of cedar.

The greys are a bit more porous from all the comments I've seen and guys I know with them. Especially so if they have any iron oxide or black streaks. My grey has enough iron oxide that it slurries pink and it sucks up a decent bit of water. I don't think I've heard of any of the beige/tan variety doing so though, whether lighter or darker tan.

I don't soak mine but do get it good and wet and keep a spray bottle handy and I also put a few drops of glycerin on the stone as it gives me some additional feed back compared to just using water alone

Mine is more tan - doesn't need soaking. Lots of naturals absorb a bit - just part of the game. As noted, spritz bottles help.
When I hone near the sink, I keep the water trickling out of the faucet and add as I go if I need to.
Or - I keep a small bowl of water nearby. I prefer to use the dripping tap water because it's always clean though.

Alum of Potash said:

Maybe a drop or two of dishwashing detergent will keep things on the surface with a non-soaked stone, .

Click to expand...

I would expect the drop of dishwashing detergent to have the opposite effect because it breaks the surface tension. Thread derail, but how many use a little detergent in their honing water?

For me it depends on the stone, but definitely sometimes.

I use soap on Ultra hard arks, and similar - but not on softer hones.
Last thing I want is soap working it's way into a porus stone, except maybe a coarse carborundum b-hone. But that's another story.

I have two. The first is a grey/white with a bit of tan in it and is in my opinion too hard, and also a bit coarser than the other. After my troubles with it the vendor replaced it with my second stone, which worked for me without any problems. I've played with the first one a bit since getting the replacement, and it functions considerably better with a coarser finish on it (not unlike the stone ekretz sent me to try), but obviously loses a bit of refinement in doing that, and as the coarse finish wears off (very slowly since it's a ridiculously hard stone), I can already feel it reverting to how it was when it arrived (it was quite finely polished when it arrived). It does not soak up water noticeably. In fact, I can take a drop of water, spread it out, and rather than soaking in it will slowly bead back up into a drop... it's like watching Terminator 2. This is after cleaning and simple green soaking, etc to ensure there's no oil in it.

The other which is a uniformly colored, very light grey (Also hard, but feels much much softer and has none of the problems of the original stone, and also is finer... really just a vastly superior stone) does not do this and does permit some water to soak into the stone... but not much, if I use the stone, dry it off and let it sit, the color reverts from "wet" to "dry" in under a minute; so obviously not a lot of water is soaking in there. A similar test on the first stone will revert almost instantaneously... as if I wet and then wiped dry a piece of plastic.

Thanks for your remarks guys. In honing with my stone last night, I followed Terry's website advise which said not to soak the stone in advance. He also advocates adding a drop of dish-washing detergent to the water, so that it doesn't bead up, but I did not follow this. Just a brief pass under the running tap and away I went, circles to X-strokes, following recommendations given on the various threads here. Sensation while honing was just great, it reminds of the "magnetic draw" term used to describe stropping with a horween oil-tanned strop. Had to use a top-to-bottom shank grip with a pencil roll, so as to lighten up on pressure; it absolutely refused my usual diagonal shank grip shenanigans. HHT afterwards was very good, stropping it with linen/leather afterwards bringing it just that much further, just like Terry mentions on his site.

Shave tonight was very nice, the edge being just a tad on the crisp side, without falling into undue harshness. In stropping it afterwards, I slipped up on the Walkin' Horse cotton piece, which is thinner than the stuff I've been using in France. After stropping on leather, I tried an HHT; it failed, I'd screwed up the edge. Briefly hit the stone once more and the HHT was passing with flying colors. Another strop, being wary of the thin cotton this time, and it's ready for the next shave.

All in all, a very nice stone. I'll probably be looking to pick up some variant pieces to try.