I don't remember seeing much about Preyda arkansas stones. I start by listing the specifications from the web site for RH Preyda, Dan's, and Best Arkansas stones.
First, the easy summary in tabular form:
Brand Type Density Grit Grit Comment Preyda soft Medium 400 600 Preyda hard Fine 600 800 Preyda hard black Extra Fine 2000 3000 Preyda translucent Ultra Fine 4000 6000 Preyda surgical black Extra Ultra Fine 8000 1000 Dan’s soft Medium 400 600 Dan’s hard Fine 600 800 Dan’s true hard Extra Fine 1200 + Same as Translucent Dan’s translucent Extra Fine 1200 + Same as true hard Dan’s black Ultra Fine 1200 + Best soft 1200 12 micron Best hard 1500 10 – 11 micron Best Black Surgical 2300 2500 7 – 7.5 micron Best translucent 3500 4000 5.5-6 micron
More verbose with a few links:
https://rhpreyda.com/
They offer the following Arkansas stones:
- Soft (400-600 grit) Medium density
- Hard (600-800 grit) Fine density
- Hard Black (2,000-3,000 grit) extra fine density
- Translucent (4,000-6,000 grit) ultra fine density
- Surgical Black (8,000-10,000 grit) x-ultra fine density
https://www.danswhetstone.com/produc...-bench-stones/
https://www.danswhetstone.com/inform...our-whetstone/
- Soft - (400-600 grit) Medium
- Hard - (600-800 grit) Fine
- True Hard - (1,200+ grit) Extra Fine (same as Translucent)
- Translucent - (1,200+ grit) Extra Fine (Same as True Hard)
- Black - (1,200+ grit) Ultra Fine
I have ONE stone from Dan's at this point, and it is the Black, listed as Ultra-Fine, so what they call their smoothing / finest / polishing stone.
If you look at Best Sharpening Stones (https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com...rpening-stones),
I pulled numbers from here:
https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/arkansas-sharpening-stones
and
https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com...ng-stone-grits
they list the following:
- Soft - about 1200 grit or 12 micron
- Hard - about 1500 grit or 10 - 11 micron
- Black Surgical 2300 - 2500 Grit or 7-7.5 micron
- Translucent 3500 - 4000 or 5.5 - 6 micron
Just looking at the numbers, I have already formed some opinions, but, I wanted to talk about a set that I have from RH Preyda.
For starters, this is the kit that I bought from Woodcraft: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/6...ft-3-stone-kit
Seems like an OK kit for $46 to keep at work in case I wanted to touch up a knife or something, but, I would like their finest stone for polishing. I will say that my immediate first impression is that the box was poorly done. Specifically, the lid drops on top and is completely smooth. In other words, the lid will not stay in place.
01_preyda_stones.jpg
My first thought was that I would modify the box so that the top would slip onto the top, but, the clearance for the top is roughly 3/16" so I did not want to try to route a lip. I considered routing a groove around the outside and then gluing some wood in place so that I could slip the top on. The walls are just under 3/8" thick. I decided on a hing wiht a 20mm filigree clasp to hold it shut.
02_preyda_stones.jpg 03_preyda_stones.jpg
This setup works well.
I threw some Norton's oil onto the Hard Black (mineral oil) since I have a bunch of it and I gave it a quick touch-up with a 1/2" chisel that needed it. Don't know what to say other than it brought the chisel up to snuff very quickly and easily. Would have liked to have touched it to something a bit finer after that, but after a strop, it was already pretty sharp so I was happy with it.
The Honing oil in my set is packaged differently than that shown on the Woodcraft site. Mind does not have the RH Preyda brand listed and it states that it meets or exceeds certain standards for food safety. I did not open the package, but, my assumption is that this is mineral oil.
04_preyda_stones.jpg