Arkansas Love...Let's see those Arks!

[GreazyThumbs]

Wanted to see how translucent this guy really was at around an inch thick (8x3x1), I am going to say pretty damn translucent. Now I am torn between honing on this and turning it into an accent light. Nature is crazy!

Do I need to be worried about any of the cracks / fissure lines in this stone? I plan on keeping this one forever.

 

[Wid]

Wanted to see how translucent this guy really was at around an inch thick (8x3x1), I am going to say pretty damn translucent. Now I am torn between honing on this and turning it into an accent light. Nature is crazy!

Do I need to be worried about any of the cracks / fissure lines in this stone? I plan on keeping this one forever.

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Beautiful!!

 

[Legion]

Wanted to see how translucent this guy really was at around an inch thick (8x3x1), I am going to say pretty damn translucent. Now I am torn between honing on this and turning it into an accent light. Nature is crazy!

Do I need to be worried about any of the cracks / fissure lines in this stone? I plan on keeping this one forever.

View attachment 1943188

View attachment 1943189

If you cant feel the cracks and fissures with your fingernail after it is lapped it will probably be fine.

 

[duke762]

I don't see anything in those 2 pictures except an extremely beautiful Trans Ark that is sad, and screaming that it wants to go live at Dukes house, really, really, bad.....Geez......I dream of stones like that. Vintage?

I absolutely hate pits in my stones, because I tend to never remember, to clean the lapping compound out of them.

Last year I bought a big, cheap, beater Trans for a knife project. Weird, common, flake looking, fractures everywhere up and down it's 10 inch length. I dutifully lapped the heck out of it and prepped it like any other Black/Trans I work with. As messed up as it looks, it doesn't affect performance. I can't feel any of the fractures.

I do worry, however, that a stone, with this many preexisting fractures, would be highly temperature sensitive. Any large movements in temp may allow expansion or contraction forces to develop and change the stability of the more easily moved fractures. Some force, or stress, has caused the fractures in certain areas, those areas, I feel would be the most likely path for further stress to be realized. If I was using my fracture ridden hone, on razors regularly, I'd obsess on checking it for flattness before use. Especially after big temperature changes.

I also suspect my fractured friend, would gladly, turn itself into gravel with a sudden temperature change, that an un-fractured stone could possibly survive. But, this cheap, stone has convinced me that fractures don't really matter, even though they look scary, and this stone performs pretty darn good for it's price. One of the only cheap Arks that I've seen, that are worth more than 2 dead flies, let alone the low price they asked for.

Man, I don't see any fractures on your hone, most likely they don't show up due to the stunning translucency. But then, I could be blinded by unbridled lust.......