# Thai Aranyik natural sharpening stones



## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

I picked up a natural sharpening stone in the Thai knife making village of Aranyik last week. A very massive thing, 9.5 inches long, 3.75 wide and 2-inches deep. 2.8 kilos on the hotels bathroom scales! Its a light colored stone of some kind they were sawing hones from there in the village. The shop making them was closed that day so all I could do was look through the window at the piles of sharpeners in the works. I would have like to watch saw the blocks. 
The surface of the stone is going to require a bit of work to be useful but it only cost me about $9.00. I know they use these stone in their own knifemaking shops so it will be interesting to see how it performs for me.


----------



## brainsausage (Mar 23, 2016)

Love to see some pics when you get a chance.


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Just think a big tan colored brick.


----------



## Asteger (Mar 23, 2016)

Interesting. Yeah, I'd like a photo or 2 too


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Like I said, its a big tan brick. Not worth my paying money to post photos here of. It normally works the other way around for me.


----------



## Asteger (Mar 23, 2016)

You can link to photos for free, dude


----------



## Cashn (Mar 23, 2016)

Photobucket.com works best for me. We like looking at metal and rocks, specially if they're new


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Same deal. Won't happen. Ever sign a contract where you state your photos have never been used any place else for public use. I do on a regular basis, "Dude."  My potential future income is more important than free entertainment for a web form. And I will say it again, all you would see is a big tan colored brick.


----------



## Nife (Mar 23, 2016)

..


----------



## berko (Mar 24, 2016)




----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 24, 2016)

Sorry Berko. I do what I can without violating my contracts and other trusts. After yesterday, there may be a chance these stones will be imported by someone I work with but it will be much later in the year. Part of that will depend on what I think of the sharpeners after I use it.


----------



## Asteger (Mar 24, 2016)

Oh well, thanks for sharing the experience anyway. How's it performing?

In absence of a real photo, I will also share this - an artist's impression of the actual object:







Not sure about the holes, but it's what 'tan brick' made me think of.  It's got a good size and uniform shape to it at least. I'd give it a try, personally


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 24, 2016)

Color is pretty close.  Maybe a little lighter. It is going to require some serious flattening before I can really try it out. I saw plenty of them being used to finish knives in the little shops there so the locals seem to be satisfied with the performance.


----------



## toddnmd (Mar 24, 2016)

Whatever.
Kind of weird for you to actually share the experience here, and then be so standoffish about sharing a measly picture. You could just take one crappy one to share here without it becoming a huge impediment to your future photo rights of a rock (a nice one, I'm sure), an image that's sure to be worth millions of dollars to you in the future. No one would fault you for protecting your rights to that kind of money.
I'll send you $0.01 by paypal as my personal contribution.
"Dude."


----------



## Asteger (Mar 24, 2016)

toddnmd said:


> Whatever.
> Kind of weird for you to actually share the experience here, and then be so standoffish about sharing a measly picture. You could just take one crappy one to share here without it becoming a huge impediment to your future photo rights of a rock (a nice one, I'm sure), an image that's sure to be worth millions of dollars to you in the future. No one would fault you for protecting your rights to that kind of money.
> I'll send you $0.01 by paypal as my personal contribution.
> "Dude."



Ahh, don't worry about it, Todd. Good to hear the info, and thanks to Noodles, but of course KKF always wants a photo. Knowing this, I guess next time someone might say 'found this, but sorry can't share a photo'. Fair enough, I guess.

Noodles - I wore out my Atoma 140 in no time flattening and re-shaping many naturals.


----------



## patraleigh (Mar 24, 2016)

maybe this one ?

https://www.facebook.com/workingblades/posts/1080088848676059

```

```


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 24, 2016)

Looks about right. I bought a stone off that company last year but not the type I picked up in Thailand. So there you have your photo and it still looks like a big tan brick.


----------



## Jovidah (Mar 24, 2016)

For what it's worth, I host my pictures from my dropbox account and that works fine. Don't know about their terms & conditions though. Haven't bothered because the things I upload aren't exactly...useful to anyone.


----------



## DanHumphrey (Mar 25, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> Same deal. Won't happen. Ever sign a contract where you state your photos have never been used any place else for public use. I do on a regular basis, "Dude."  My potential future income is more important than free entertainment for a web form. And I will say it again, all you would see is a big tan colored brick.



Are you saying your contracts forbid you to have ever taken a picture and posted it on Facebook? I know a bunch of photographers; they all post their own photos online all the time. But ok.


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

I'm saying when you sell a photo to a publisher they demand you state it has never been used before in any form and after that they retain all rights. No editor likes to be sold illustrations that the writer has already posted all over the web. You hear it all the time, "why should I buy a print magazine if I can get the info free off the web?" Why would a publisher want to help that?


----------



## mikedtran (Mar 25, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> I'm saying when you sell a photo to a publisher they demand you state it has never been used before in any form and after that they retain all rights. No editor likes to be sold illustrations that the writer has already posted all over the web. You hear it all the time, "why should I buy a print magazine if I can get the info free off the web?" Why would a publisher want to help that?



That is fair, but can't you take a cell phone picture of this stone on your carpet (that you would never want to sell / no one would care to buy) and post it?


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

How about we talk about the stone rather than photos. I flattened it yesterday and that was much easier than I expected. It did take about a 45 minute soak before it quit bubbling so I'm guessing it is pretty porous grit. I will probably try sharpening something on it today.


----------



## mikedtran (Mar 25, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> How about we talk about the stone rather than photos. I flattened it yesterday and that was much easier than I expected. It did take about a 45 minute soak before it quit bubbling so I'm guessing it is pretty porous grit. I will probably try sharpening something on it today.



I normally don't bite on posting non-positive things, but something about how you've written makes me want to point out the obvious:

It is only being brought up because you made statements like "Not worth my paying money to post photos here of." and "Won't happen. Ever sign a contract where you state your photos have never been used any place else for public use."

If you didn't want to post pictures just say so, don't make excuses - clearly no one likes them.


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

I though I had made it pretty plain I wasn't interested in posting photos. No excuses, just fact.


----------



## Asteger (Mar 25, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> How about we talk about the stone rather than photos. I flattened it yesterday and that was much easier than I expected. It did take about a 45 minute soak before it quit bubbling so I'm guessing it is pretty porous grit. I will probably try sharpening something on it today.



Soaked it? Good heavens. :scared4:

Just in case: You've already gone ahead with it, but when you get stones like this and get them wet for the first time in order to flatten or reshape them, there's always a good chance they'll crack. As you soaked it for a while and it still sounds okay, you might have got away with it. Careful how you dry it, though. Slowly, not in any sun or unusual temps. As it absorbs a lot, next step for me would be to lacquer the sides and bottom which will make the absorption aspect far easier to manage, as it sounds like it could be an annoyance with this one. If the stone's still wettish, you might prep it for lacquer now (ie. smooth any other bits off and brush off grit so it dries clean) so that you don't have to get it too wet again.


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

You don't soak your waterstones? I tend to soak all of them until they quit bubbling. Never had a problem in the past but I will watch this one. I wrapped it in plastic yesterday so it shouldn't have dried out much over night. I wanted to save time today when I actually try to sharpen something on it today.


----------



## Asteger (Mar 25, 2016)

I can't speak of non-J natural stones, but by J standards yours will certainly be coarse or med and I've messed with those a lot. Yes, some need a lot of water and need 1 min or 2 to get the right balance. Wouldn't soak 'em though. How did you see them being used in Thailand?


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

Everything was pretty much shut down on Monday for some reason. Mostly I saw photos in the local museum of them being used. I did see one lady in a shop putting a final edge on a kitchen cleaver with one and she had plenty of water splashed on the stone. Whether she had soaked it prior to that, I have no way to know. 
One other trick I picked up in a Bangkok wet market was that most of the butchers kept an over turned stainless steel skillet next to their work area. They then steeled their knives on the bottom of the skillet every few minutes. I know someone will say that means their knives were very soft steel. Could be but I wish I could bone out a hind quarter of a hog as quick and clean as I watched one of these guys do. The knife seemed to be plenty sharp for the job at hand.


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 25, 2016)

Having tried the stone out today, I have to say it was not at all what I expected. What I thought would happen was that the surface would easily produce a thick mud. Didn't come close to that. The stone seems very hard as in the aggregate that holds the abrasives in place practically does not break down and produce any kind of slurry on the surface. It is more like using an Arkansas stone in that respect. I sharpened (touched up is probably a better way of putting it on any of my knives) several Thai cleavers, a Viet and Chinese cleaver, and a stainless steel Penguin brand Thai chef knife. All had good working edges of the 1000-1200 grit type at the end. Other than having to fly to Thailand, hire a driver to take me to the knifemaking village, and cart the heavy stone home, I'm happy with my purchase.


----------



## Keith Sinclair (Mar 26, 2016)

How was the Aranyik knifemaking village how was it set up?


----------



## Asteger (Mar 26, 2016)

Might work better if you use a slurry stone of some sort


----------



## Noodle Soup (Mar 26, 2016)

keithsaltydog said:


> How was the Aranyik knifemaking village how was it set up?



For what ever reason, most of the manufacturing was shut down on Mondays when I was there. The main street through town is lined with knife shops while the makers tend to be on the side streets branching off that. There is a small museum in the center of town. It was pretty dead as far as knife buying traffic. Maybe it is more active on weekends.


----------



## Badgertooth (Mar 27, 2016)

Do you think the hardness and lack of slurry would be an impediment to the more cosmetic aspects of sharpening like cladding contrast and Kasumi polishing?


----------



## Asteger (Mar 27, 2016)

Hardness, no, but you need some slurry. And then it's up the magic of how it breaks down (or doesn't) whether it works. Oh and the stone will need some abrasion but not be too grippy.


----------



## aranyik (Apr 2, 2016)

Some pictures from my facebook page were linked, and I would like to inform or clear up any misinformation. The only thing I could think of being sold in Ta Rua to tourists would be the sandstone, I have put up a lot of pictures here http://current.aranyik.com/2016/04/thai-natural-whetstones.html, I hope that helps with identification.

The sandstone commonly sold to tourists sure sounds like what the op is referring to, coarse hard grit, difficult to raise slurry, maybe appearing brown/red in color, and coming in 'cut' square brick sizes. Price around $9-$10. Commonly used as oil hone in shops to break off burr from grinding. I would have uploaded the pictures directly here if possible.


----------

