Soft Arkansas or Shapton Pro 1000

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Soft Ark or ShapPro1K

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1

1315

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Natural vs synthetic.
Stone asthetics vs manuf. appearance.
Character vs clone.

We just had a long thread for the Pro 1000, but also a lot of hotshots loving that Soft Ark. Price/ size are comparable. Which would you choose for a quick countertop sharpener? Please don't ask what core steel, what blade length, if I'm right or left handed, or what astrological sign. Sharpening only. Just your preference for whatever daily knives you might touch up at this lower grit.
 
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I know your question is very A or B, but I would throw a Belgian Blue Whetstone into the mix for touch-ups. I have never used an Ark. I think a BBW is considerably finer. If you have a good slurry going it works pretty fast though. Not SP1k fast, but fast...
 
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For simple carbon steels or AEB-L stainless and derivatives, an ark is a good choice to maintain sharpness.

If you want something that'll work on just about everything, the Shapton Pro 1k would be a better choice.
 
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It depends. You mention this stone is “only for touch ups”. That implies that you have other stones for more serious work. In that case I would choose a coarse Ark. I have a Dan’s washita which in 8x3x1 size is probably 2-3 times the price of a SP1000.

If I could only have one stone period, it would be synth about 1K or coarser. 1K and below is the sweet spot for synths.
 
If you want to ignore the moon phase and get to business, buy a Shapton. Naturals are for fussy people with romantic notions of sharpening who wear mood rings and burn sage.

Soft arks remove steel very slowly. They're great at some things like deburring or foundation work for razors. But they're slow. The only thing slower is a hard Ark. I have about a dozen because I'm one of those moon phase people. But buyer beware.

If you have 25 extra bucks to burn, one of each is honestly a great pair. Eat in this week. The shapton gets **** done and the Ark cleans up after. But you can clean up your edge on a cereal box just as easily and nearly as effective if you don't want stones cluttering up your counter.
 
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captaincaed said:
If you want to ignore the moon phase and get to business, buy a Shapton. Naturals are for fussy people with romantic notions of sharpening who wear mood rings and burn sage.

Soft arks remove steel very slowly. They're great at some things like deburring or foundation work for razors. But they're slow. The only thing slower is a hard Ark. I have about a dozen because I'm one of those moon phase people. But buyer beware.

If you have 25 extra bucks to burn, one of each is honestly a great pair. Eat in this week. The shapton gets **** done and the Ark cleans up after. But you can clean up your edge on a cereal box just as easily and nearly as effective if you don't want stones cluttering up your counter.
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I certainly wouldn't have had as many softs as you S, but some of them are very quick imo. Maybe not SP1K fast, but decently fast enough that you could happily compare to synths. The only one I'd really call slow is an old Norton Soft, which has an SG at at about 2.55, so is probably really what most companies call 'Hard'.
 
1315 said:
Natural vs synthetic.
Stone asthetics vs manuf. appearance.
Character vs clone.

We just had a long thread for the Pro 1000, but also a lot of hotshots loving that Soft Ark. Price/ size are comparable. Which would you choose for a quick countertop sharpener? Please don't ask what core steel, what blade length, if I'm right or left handed, or what astrological sign. Sharpening only. Just your preference for whatever daily knives you might touch up at this lower grit.
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For touchups in the way you describe - I would get a Soft Ark.

For me the SP1K is too aggressive for that kind of thing. It'll end up raising too large burrs, removing more steel than necessary, and giving slightly ragged edges. It's an absolutely superb stone, but I wouldn't use it for the kind of thing you're asking about.
 
SP1000 is rather course for a touchup depending on steel. It might be OK for cheap stainless but I use a SG500 for those which is faster. For better steel that isn’t dull 2K-3K is a nice one stone solution for a quick touchup.
 
Neither, too coarse. I like my Shapton Glass 2k for touch ups, occasionally drop to my Cerax 1k. Nice smooth, little burrs. Strop and I’m gliding through food and (sometimes) paper towel if I want.
 
I have had and do have several Ark's, to include a number of softs. I've done full sharpenings of a lot of knives on just a soft Ark.

Playing strictly within your established parameters, I'd take a soft Ark over the 1k.

That said, neither would be my first choice for kitchen touch-ups but I could certainly (and often have) lived quite nicely with a soft Ark edge.
 
My suggestion is the SP1000 (or equivalent) is a "staple" stone that should be in your toolbox early in your sharpening education. It's a solid stone, most have one or one like it in their progression because it consistently works. If you have problems with it, want to do something different with it, etc, there are a bunch of folks here that can provide guidance. Suggest you learn to use it as part of your sharpening progression and develop some proficiency with it.

Once you're comfortable with the staple stones, then start thinking about what else you would like to try.

The Arks certainly have a following and I plan to try one, one of these days. (Worth noting that every SP1000 is basically the same stone - not so with the Arks or any other nats)

Others may want to try BBs, oil stones, Jnat finishers, high grit syn finishers, whatever.

All good but get the fundamentals down first.
 
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I have 15 stones, with many redundant, and this sp1k/softark will be redundant as well. Why have 5 if you can have 20, right? This thread was intended to contrast just these two stones, as we all have stones above and below the target ark/1k grit range.
I agree with comments for BB & others for fine tuning, but for ark or pro, please vote at the top!
 
I think my answer, if you must choose, is that it depends what stones you already have.

A person with no 1K synthetic really needs one, and the SP1000 is a good one. At least I assume it is. I liked the SP1500, and the SG1000 is my most-used stone.

A person with 3 1K synthetics, but no novaculite at all would find that acquiring a soft ark would be a nicely inexpensive way to try them out, and find out the pleasures of a toothy natural edge.

Of course my real answer is to buy both and decide for yourself.
 
Arks and Belgian Blue, even if very different due to the different abrasives, are both great for touching-up. In hand, within a few strokes, an edge is restored at the level it had after a full sharpening. As very little steel is being removed, geometry doesn't get altered. In a home setting, it allows postponing a full sharpening for a very long time. You may postpone even longer by touching-up a single time with a 2-3k in between.
One exception: it doesn't work with soft stainless, as the big Germans out of Krupp's 4116, or a Global. It will for sure show a very nice edge, but it hardly survives a few cuts. They don't hold a fine polish.
 
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