Description
One of the ~12x102mm ‘side’ facets has been shaped to have a 6.5’Ø down the length and a ~25’Ø across the width.
Originally, I’d meant to shape a ~2×4″ facet with the 25’Ø shape going down the 4″ length, and in fact it was ~90%+ finished, and at some point like an idiot I reoriented the stone to the ‘the Jarrod plate’ and started carving in a 6.5’Øx25’Ø ellipse from the periphery, ~10-15mins of that and you can see the remainder there at the edges. I would be here hours on end to burn that off.
So, what you have is the ability to use the majority of the 2×4″ shaped facet like the filing method you’ve seen on my YouTube channel, for a secondary bevel refinement with the long diameter effect. And of course, the ‘railing’ that’s shaped to 6.5’Ø works brilliantly in that regard. You can use the other ‘railing’, which is flat, or of course the facet which used to have the Norton sticker, for flat final finishing effect.
The old box is pretty nice, I had that in my office sans stone, and the stone was in a pile of ‘to be hacked at’ rocks in my house when the house fire happened 6.25.2023. Degreaser works wonderfully on Arkansas stones, though, and the stone’s good as new.
I recently shaped 3x Norton Hard Arkansas stones, this one and a modern equivalent and a Norton file. This one is a little bit denser than the other two. The file is ~1mm thicker at the thinnest facet than this one. And the thinnest one, the modern HB24 that’s white, is clearly the best strata.
I think for my purposes of filing-as-pre-finisher, I’m not after winning the strata contest, I want any ole hard Arkansas that’s the best SHAPE.
What shape that is which is best for filing, I don’t know, life will tell. You want size, but you want light, too. 15x15x100mm sounds ideal, but the Norton 3/8″ x 1″ x 4″ and 2 x 4 x 3/4″ Arkansas stones, which you can still find around, might be even better.
