How To Burnish A Black/Translucent Arkansas Stone Part 1 

I spent 30 minutes burnishing my black Arkansas stone. It didn't do much to the stone, But I'm getting the best shaves of my life with this chisel. thanks Doc !

Listening to unaccompanied cello suites while going to town on a black Arkansas stone with a chisel is the only way to roll. Well done sir. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

So much can be taken for granted when someone simply says how they burnish a hard Ark. Seeing the process and hearing your explanations while in the process is sincerely appreciated. Thank you as always!

I'm new to straight razor collecting, restoring, honing and using. Thank you so much for your videos, there are no substitutes.

A very erudite presentation enhanced by a talented cellist playing one of the Bach cello suites. Most enjoyable, these natural stones are truly marvellous things!

Wow! I've never heard of this! You're blowing my mind over here in Texas. Thank you so much! Why isn't this done to ever natural stone, like Imperia La Rocca?

Sir, you made my day with the chisel-burnishing idea, I can't wait (after lapping my natural stone on 800 grit) to buy a wide chisel to make the stone shine. Thank you a lot for sharing your wisdom and practice!! Greetings from the Czech Republic.

Great video and love the Bach cello suite playing in the background👍

Lovely music, stones, sharpening... really therapeutic and relaxing.

Great vídeo Doc, people usually call those Surgical Black Arkansas or True Hard black Arkansas, but I'm no expert either.. I have a translucent from Dan's and you can see the light pass through it.. They're beautiful stones ! I like to use mine with wd40, but even dry they work fine..

Nothing better with my morning coffee than a new Dr. Matt honing upload(s)! Love that shirt too! Hope you and the family are well! 👊🏻

Burnishing is what happens during months of normal daily use in my workshop

What an epic collection of stones

Just got a new stone from Dan’s I never heard of. Blue black Arkansas stone. I go from soft to translucent to black to blue black and my edges are insane.

Great stuff ! Good to see you again ! Always learning something new 👍🏼

Never personally seen the need to burnish a stone, but I'm keeping an open mind. I wonder if what you are doing is detaching microscopic particles of steel which are then pushed into the ' micro valleys' in between the peaks of the microcrystals at the surface. If carried out to the nth degree this would in effect 'glaze' the stone. Presumably before this, there is a happy medium that allows tools or blades to more easily glide across the stone when sharpening, at. perhaps, the cost of slower metal removal. ??? If the objective is to wear down the tips of the microcrystals in order to make the stone smoother, I would have thought that lapping to a higher grit in the first place would achieve the same objective but quicker. ???

On the websites it says that is a 6”x1” stone on the gritomatic website and on dans whetstone they have the whetstone marked as 6x2x3/4 or 1/2”

I was waiting for this video since you put the picture with the sharpening results on facebook.

After I have lapped about 10 stones I check my glass with a metal ruler. It was concave. It had about 1 mm hole. :)

A Burnished in White hard Translucent Arkansas is as ultra fine as it gets when it comes to the Arkansas family of natural stones.

Nice video, but I don't get one thing. The glass is softer than black Arkansas. Wouldn't this process "lap" hole into glass rather then lap the Ark flat?

0:11 Look at those guns. Dr Matt has been working out.

Great video, you make things in an easy way to understand. Thank you for sharing this video Dr. Matt.

What does burnish in Arkansas stones do? And do you have to do that with these kind of stones?

holy s*it this is the episode that i am dreaming off!

I suggest eveyone who does this with a chisel make sure its dead flat by sharpening/flatening the chisel 1st. They do not come this way when bought new, some are super janky and jagged

Cool trick. They sell diamond sharpening and honing pads at harbor freight. Whatever grit you want and they are extremely flat. They open up the polish on your real stones, fantastically. If you have a blade that needs a remodel, those course diamond plates are the best. Other than that, I use them to flatten, tune and make slurry on my real stones.

Nice T-Shirt 😉 I also use a Glass Plate for laping my stones and SiC powder until F1800

Man alive, those are handsome stones.

I have a used translucent Arkansas stone and it's not flat on either side. It was used to sharpen plane blades and chisels, I intend to do the same. Any thoughts on how to flatten it? Another video showed doing it on a flat garage concrete floor or they recommended a flat cinder block. I think that might work if I follow it with some medium to fine or finer sandpaper and burnish it. or if you have another suggestion please let me know. I recently flattened a coticule but that was simple with sandpaper on a flattening granite stone. I have spent $14 on both stones total so I feel lucky on that, but they need work. Thanks

Nice shirt! Miss the old WWF

Hi , Could you provide us link on where found the diamond support you use at start, and the diamond plate itself ? Thanks in advance. A Frenchy that crossed your channel by hasard, but was so impressed by your shave technic….. Pat. Merci.

So, this is arms day for the workout right? This is really cool to watch. Should you do this with every new stone?

Me: sparingly use enough SiC to save money Video: sprinkles the loose SiC like baby powder great vid btw, I don't have flat chisel at home. Can I use other flat steels? My plan is to burnish one side and the other is to lap it to 600 grit

Quick question can this be polished up with wet and dry sand paper on glass. And just moving up ? Or is it so dense that it won’t work or take too long?

I will burnish my dan's black now, seems easy enough, Tks doc

How long are you able to use the glass plate before you have to replace it?

In your opinion, what is the different end result between a black hard Arkansas vs the ILR on a razor edge?

Another good video Matt! Keep’m coming!

Hey doc! Just a quick question, couldnt this be done with diamond plates instead of the powder?

Is that a wood chisel that you burnish the stone? Thanks

What is that dust you put onto the plate over your sink

Maybe interested in Indonesian natural Whetstone?

Ive never done this but if you want a finer finish could you go higher grits in the sic powder ive seen it go up to 1500 how much of a difference do you think it would make? Id like to add in a surgical black after an ultra fine ceramic for an ever finer edge

The hard black are slightly denser, but not by much.

That's a Black, not translucent. Translucent, as the name implies, allows light to partially pass through it. They're VERY similar. But not quite the same. They're pretty much identical in finish. But one is translucent and lighter in color and the other is pitch black. 😄😄 Nice video though. I loved the cello in the background.

2 inch chisel not file lol anyway great video thanks' for showing technique

Hello sir fm Greece..any idea about Ardesi Nera stone???

Most exellent.

I see some sign of the Schwartz up on that shelf.

Nice video

Japan called! They want their expert back!

11:40...I bet you got the stone on your left from Natural Whetstone.com. I have the same one and I love it!!!

Hi! Can we use this method on the canadian novaculite Wild Rose?

On a glass you would get more cut

Hmm, so the rec from Dan's to use oil to prevent the steel from "clogging the stone" is BS?

❤

Why???

I’m just hoping to buy that stone and not get a 1 inch wide stone in the mail.

🤘😃🤘

Honestly. I'm not doggin at all. I'm just a carpenter that loves a straight razor shave. All you did was very moderately fuck up an invaluable (and fairly expensive) chisel. Bust that fine as stone open with some diomond plates. Try honing your razor on it after that, and please let me know how that goes❤

That's not a file, it's a chisel.

Looks more than a surgical than Translucent , a Translucent should be Translucent.....?