Hi Everyone:
I hope you'll tolerate another sharpening thread, for someone who is working through the learning curve.
I had been using sandpaper with decent results, but thought I would go in the oilstone direction. From one of the reputable online dealers, I picked up (1) a soft Arkansas (novaculite) and (2) a hard Arkansas, and was planning on finishing off with a green-stuff on my MDF strop.
I'm sharpening vintage stanley plane irons, chisels, and so forth. No fancy steels.
So, my questions are:
(1) I'm having a hard time getting the soft Arkansas to cut well. Both stones needed some flattening, which I took care of with 60/90 silicone carbide on a granite plate. For sharpening, I'm using mineral oil mixed with mineral spirits. It takes me about 500 passes to raise a bur (on a microbevel) using the soft Arkansas. That seems too many, am I right? Any thoughts on how I might get it to cut faster? Or is this not the first stone that one should use? (I'm just talking about ordinary re-sharpening here, not establishing bevels, shaping, etc.)
(2) In terms of coarseness, the hard Arkansas doesn't seem much different than the soft. (It is indeed much harder.) Is this to be expected? I flattened the hard Arkansas using the same 60/90 silicone carbide grit. Would going finer here do anything?
Thanks again for your help! I thought stones would be easier than sandpaper, ha ha ha. I'll be proud when I get this up and running.