Translucent Arkansas stone - "Pike's"

Thomas Linton

Thomas Linton

Joined
Jun 16, 2003
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I saw a mention of arkansas stone in another thread here and looked more closely at one I bought a garage sale last weeek for a whopping $.50. ("Why do you want that dirty old thing?") It's in a wooden box, and when I looked inside the top I read, "Pike's Genuine Arkansas Oilstone The Best in the World Warranted Use sperm oil or lard oil."

Went to Google and discovered that Mr. Pike started making sharpening stones in 1820's. This must be a pretty old example of translucent Arkansas oilstone - "Use sperm oil"!!!

While my natural stones make little headway on newer "super steels" (CPM 3v and S30V), they do just fine on my khukuris.
 
sperm.jpg
 
:confused:

OH! Thanks for clearing that up Pen, I was confused for a sec. :D ;) :p

JK, although dirty minds could easily see something bad there.
 
If it's a translucent Arkansas, it is smoother than glass. They are for the final step in getting a polished edge. I have one I bought in 1982, use all the time and it shows no wear.

I read somewhere that these stones are 6000 grit. They are noticably finer than the surgical black Arkansas stones at 2000 grit.
 
I should perhaps have cleared up "sperm oil." My great, great, granddad was a whaler out of Fall River, Mass. Still have a tooth (from a "Right Whale," I think) from that relative. What I gathered was that this stone was made before pertoleum was a choice - "Use sperm oil or lard oil."
 
I think Pendentive put that picture up so the do-it-yourselfers would know what to hunt.

Sorry I can't point you to a source of narwhal oil. Narwhal tusk is here, but it's awfully expensive.Narwhal

What the heck, it's only money!:D :D :D
 
Hi!
Recently at a market I found a small {just over 5x2in.} 1905 patent date oil stone, also deeply ingraved with...

Damascus Razor Hone,
U.J.Ulery Co.
New York,
U.S.A.

& also a picture of a camel!

It is very smooth & dark grey, almost black in colour althought I havent soaked it in spirits yet,

Does anyone know whether this would be an Arkansas stone of some sort? It seems different from my old other stones. Very decorative too!

Cheers,
Spiral
 
The translucent Arkansas stones can run fron white through tan, yellowish and pink to gray. The one common feature is that they are translucent. You can see some light through the edges. They are as smooth as polished glass and are composed of very fine grained (in the micron size range) quartz crystals that are directionally aligned. Commercially, this is called novaculite. Technically it is what is known as an ultra-mylonite, which is a textural term for extremely fine-grained rocks generated in metamorphic shear zones that align the crystals.

This type of stone is used with oil, but it is so fine-grained and tight that it will not soak up much, if any. The oil is for cleaning and lubrication.

Hot Springs Arkansas is the only place that I know of where this is mined for whetstones. Similar rocks occur in Colorado, New Mexico, northern Nevada and California in my experience.
 
I've encountered some assertions about Arkansas stones that don't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

http://www.danswhetstone.com/common_questions.htm

1. What is the grit size for each grade of Arkansas Stone?

Arkansas Novaculite stones are classified by specific gravity and not the size of the grain. The grain of the silica crystals that form Novaculite are essentially the same size, 3-5 microns, whether the stone is classified as Soft Arkansas or True Hard Arkansas. Using Specific Gravity Testing, Dan's Whetstone Company measures the density of their stones, that is the compactness of the grains bonded together. Therefore the harder stones would then have more grains than the softer stones. Since the grit size of Arkansas Novaculite does not widely vary, it is difficult to compare it with the grit sizes of man-made stones. Grit measurement standards for traditional man-made stones vary internationally. By U.S. grit standards, genuine Novaculite most closely relates to the 600-1200 grit size. [/]

Are the black and translucent stones excepted from the above discussion? This doesn't really fit with how I think of abrasives.

And, comments to the effect that the "good stuff" is mined out, or "old stones are better". Of course the purveyers of Arkansas stones deny this.

example:

http://home.pacifier.com/~davewe The_Joys_of_Arkansas_Stones.htm

Anyone able to help?
 
I have been using Hall's Arkansas Stones for many years, I bought my translucent stone from them in 1982.

<www.hallsproedge.com>

They have considerably cheaper prices than any of the other Hot Springs companies that I have checked out and give very good prompt service on orders. I have bought several stones from them in the last few years and all arrived within a week from the order date.

As for grit, the surgical black is finer than my 1200 grit Diasharp hone and my translucent stone is MUCH finer grit than the surgical black.

The coarser stones have a sandy texture you can feel. It may be that these are rock fragments composed of the few micron sized grains, but there is a definite difference in texture between the grades.
 
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