Arkansas sharpening & honing stones

The naturally extracted Arkansas grindstones consist of novaculite, a very dense, hard and fine-grained metamorphic rock made of silicon. It occurs in various colours from white to black-grey. The rock is mined – as the name suggests – in Arkansas in the USA, but also in Oklahoma. 

Because of its fineness, Arkansas honing stones are very well suited as honing stones after the wooden tools have previously been processed with coarser sharpening stones (e.g. CORAP, diamond sharpening stone). Honing stones are generally understood to be grindstones with a very fine grit (corresponds to a grit between 500 and 1000). Honing stones often have special shapes, e.g. to optimally process the cutting edges of gouges or v-parting tools.

Use honing stones if your tools only need a light sharpening to be completely sharp again or if you have already pre-sharpened with coarser grindstones. Honing stones are a great way to remove burrs when sharpening with coarser sharpening stones.

It is also possible to sharpen wooden tools completely with an Arkansas grindstone – the result is a particularly fine grind, but the grinding procedure takes some time. At bildhau you can obtain Arkansas stones as flat bench stones or as arkansas honing stones with various profiles.

For more information about sharpening and honing wooden tools by hand, see our specialist knowledge articles Sharpening tools by hand: Sharpening Stones, Sharpening gouges by hand and Coticule - belgian coticule whetstone polygon.