how many here have heard of the new apache strata natural stone? actually a very fine and fast razor finishing stone but also does the trick on knives as well. I bought one tried it and ordered another. leaves a mirror polish finish and a super sharp edge. if you have tried them then you know, if you haven't tried them, you should. leaves my kershaws and case knives in top notch sharpness
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new natural sharpening stone
- Thread starter kn4wd
- Start date
Ernie, I have 4 of them and also a black translucent arkie, an old purple slate, several blue green slates and they are nowhere as fine or as fast as the apache. this stone needs no slurry, I tried it both ways and with the slurry it cuts no faster nor smoother. my straight razors come off with the bevel polished to a mirror to the eye and I use a 1k,4k,8k progression. I have a coti, most agree it is around 8k and I finish the straights on the apache off the coti. almost thuri, almost ex fine j nat. the darker ones are even faster than the greys. it is close to a owhee jasper I had till it self destructed, this stone ios very much harder than jasper. get a smaller cheaper one and try it. I don't have any connection with the man other than bought a few stones from him, Terry seems like a nice guy and there were reviews on badger and blade. only one hone was bad and he replaced it, it is a natural and you may get a bad one every once and awhile. main thing is he stands behind them. I have three darker ones and one light grey, I use the darker ones more. I have no way of verifying the grit nor the hardness but if you saw these bevels in person you would understand.
now after finishing over a dozen of my straight razors on this stone, I find the end result in a very nice smooth shave. I compared it to a dragons tongue and a lynn melllynnin hone with superior results going to the apache. I have used the lighter and darker stones side by side the only difference is speed. darker cuts a bit faster, I used two wade and butcher 1" blades same grind wedges, 1k, 4k,8k, apache progression 12 laps on the dark and around 20 on the light to remove the 8k scratches. imho it is a 100% genuine finishing stone. one thing I've noticed as the stone is used more and gets a shine it seems to be even finer on the finish, maybe a bit of slurry left on the surface from lapping? it sort of reminds me of a well broken in sb arkie in a different color with a higher cutting speed. if you drop in the rabbit hole and try one, you wont just simply like it you will absolutely love it. it has become my go to finisher. the best result is on a joseph rogers celebrated wedge, that razor has always been a dog to hone till now, bevel is tough to set finish was hard to get till now about 30 passes on the apache and oh! what a lovely smooth shave.