I pick stones up when I see them. I prefer natural hones, so that is what I try to find when I am looking.
I have always used some sort of Arkansas stone when sharpening knives and chisels, and with good luck.
You can see the stones I generally use to hone my razors on the bottom of the picture. I use either the greyish stone or the white one for rough work (unless it is really rough, then I go to a Norton stone not in this picture). I finish with the red barber hone and sometimes with that tiny little transulcent Arkansas.
I recently picked up the two stones that are in wood blocks. The whitish yellow one was jet black when I got it, and I was really hopeful that it might be a surgical black. Once I started dressing the belly out of it, it became clear that it was not black at all, just really really dirty (I didn't clean any of the other sides, so you can still see what I mean).
So, what is this stone? It seems to be a natural stone, it has imperfections that are clearly visible, and it seems to be a bit softer than my soft Arkansas on the left of the picture. I haven't used it much at this point because I frankly don't know what it is. Should I use oil, as per my usual methods, or use water and try to make a slurrly or something (note that I have actually never done the slurry thing and don't know what I would use to actually start the process).
The awesome news is that that small black stone came in the same box, without the wood block, and it does seem to be a black arkansas, so all is not bust. Plus, I gave six bucks for a whole box of hones and two of them were chipped up but respectable barber hones. The rest were carborundum (or whatever you call the coarse cheapo stones I might use to sharpen an ax with).
I have always used some sort of Arkansas stone when sharpening knives and chisels, and with good luck.
You can see the stones I generally use to hone my razors on the bottom of the picture. I use either the greyish stone or the white one for rough work (unless it is really rough, then I go to a Norton stone not in this picture). I finish with the red barber hone and sometimes with that tiny little transulcent Arkansas.
I recently picked up the two stones that are in wood blocks. The whitish yellow one was jet black when I got it, and I was really hopeful that it might be a surgical black. Once I started dressing the belly out of it, it became clear that it was not black at all, just really really dirty (I didn't clean any of the other sides, so you can still see what I mean).
So, what is this stone? It seems to be a natural stone, it has imperfections that are clearly visible, and it seems to be a bit softer than my soft Arkansas on the left of the picture. I haven't used it much at this point because I frankly don't know what it is. Should I use oil, as per my usual methods, or use water and try to make a slurrly or something (note that I have actually never done the slurry thing and don't know what I would use to actually start the process).
The awesome news is that that small black stone came in the same box, without the wood block, and it does seem to be a black arkansas, so all is not bust. Plus, I gave six bucks for a whole box of hones and two of them were chipped up but respectable barber hones. The rest were carborundum (or whatever you call the coarse cheapo stones I might use to sharpen an ax with).
