Arkansas stones and lapping film questions.

[Skane24]

Hello, I just ordered a hard fine Arkansas stone, hard black, and hard translucent stone for my KME sharpener, along with some honing oil, and a 6 micron diamond lapping film. The lapping films are really expensive, so I was wondering about using aluminum oxide lapping films instead of diamond, I saw 3m had sheets of lapping films, 4 1/4 x 11 inches, for 17 dollars, so I ordered those as well.

What should I expect out of the Arkansas stones, I intended to use them after the 1500 grit diamond stone, and wasn’t sure if I should start with the black, or the fine, and then finish with translucent? What kind of maintenance do I need to keep in mind with the Arkansas stones, will I need to lap them, and what steels can they work on? If I end up needing to lap them, what could I use to lap them?

Regarding the lapping films, it is my understanding that the diamond lapping films will last longer, around 5-7 , even up to 10 blades, however, they are also more expensive, what should I expect out of the aluminum oxide lapping films?

I appreciate everyone’s time and advice!

 

[cudgee]

Hello, I just ordered a hard fine Arkansas stone, hard black, and hard translucent stone for my KME sharpener, along with some honing oil, and a 6 micron diamond lapping film. The lapping films are really expensive, so I was wondering about using aluminum oxide lapping films instead of diamond, I saw 3m had sheets of lapping films, 4 1/4 x 11 inches, for 17 dollars, so I ordered those as well.

What should I expect out of the Arkansas stones, I intended to use them after the 1500 grit diamond stone, and wasn’t sure if I should start with the black, or the fine, and then finish with translucent? What kind of maintenance do I need to keep in mind with the Arkansas stones, will I need to lap them, and what steels can they work on? If I end up needing to lap them, what could I use to lap them?

Regarding the lapping films, it is my understanding that the diamond lapping films will last longer, around 5-7 , even up to 10 blades, however, they are also more expensive, what should I expect out of the aluminum oxide lapping films?

I appreciate everyone’s time and advice!

There is a thread here somewhere posted by Kreiser i think about making your own lapping films using 3M surgical tape and diamond pastes. Very economical and maybe something you want to look at. I'm busy at the moment and have not got time to find the thread for you, sorry. But do look it up will be worth your while.

 

[Skane24]

There is a thread here somewhere posted by Kreiser i think about making your own lapping films using 3M surgical tape and diamond pastes. Very economical and maybe something you want to look at. I'm busy at the moment and have not got time to find the thread for you, sorry. But do look it up will be worth your while.

Alrighty, I found that thread I might give that a try, any advice on the Arkansas stones?

 

[cudgee]

any advice on the Arkansas stones?

I personally really like them, and can get really keen edges with them, but most of my knives are carbon. Just take your time with them, i have never had a problem with dishing, but they can glaze, but i just use a steel brush and detergent under running warm water and that cleans them up. Then i give them a rub with some 600-1000 grit sandpaper. But there is a lot of good advise out there on looking after them from a lot more experienced people than me regarding Arkansas stones.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

For polishing, everything rides on the abrasive type vs. the steel type, as to whether it'll work well or not. Base your purchasing decisions on this, primarily.

For simpler steels not having a lot of wear resistance, like 1095, CV, 420HC, etc., the Arkansas stones can work pretty well on their own. And the very fine aluminum oxide polishing options will also work very fast, though they might be overkill if taken too far, removing a lot of metal even in the polishing stages.

For somewhat more wear-resistant steels with mostly chromium carbides (440A/C, 154CM, VG-10, etc.) aluminum oxide polishes those well.

With anything containing much vanadium carbide content (S30V/90V/110V, etc.), diamond is the way to go. The lesser abrasives will struggle to polish those steels fully. D2 is one steel that responds better in edge crispness to diamond in the polishing stages, due to it's very LARGE chromium carbides (50 microns or bigger), even though it doesn't have a lot of vanadium carbide content.

 

[garry3]

Hello, I just ordered a hard fine Arkansas stone, hard black, and hard translucent stone for my KME sharpener, along with some honing oil, and a 6 micron diamond lapping film. The lapping films are really expensive, so I was wondering about using aluminum oxide lapping films instead of diamond, I saw 3m had sheets of lapping films, 4 1/4 x 11 inches, for 17 dollars, so I ordered those as well.

What should I expect out of the Arkansas stones, I intended to use them after the 1500 grit diamond stone, and wasn’t sure if I should start with the black, or the fine, and then finish with translucent? What kind of maintenance do I need to keep in mind with the Arkansas stones, will I need to lap them, and what steels can they work on? If I end up needing to lap them, what could I use to lap them?

Regarding the lapping films, it is my understanding that the diamond lapping films will last longer, around 5-7 , even up to 10 blades, however, they are also more expensive, what should I expect out of the aluminum oxide lapping films?

I appreciate everyone’s time and advice!

All the arks will have a break in period. I do some laps with pressure using the back of a chisel to help things along.

Unless you have a dunston black the black is likely to be finer than translucent. It's a matter of debate with ark users over which is finer so that is just my opinion. I wouldn't bother using them both in a progression. I would have went soft, hard, translucent.