it doesn’t seem that very many folks are as meticulous as us.

And there’s the rub. The Black Ark is used in different ways. Some people burnish the surface to round/smooth the novaculite there. Some use a flattening plate (or SiC powder) on the surface to create surface texture. I’m in the second camp. In neither case does the stone remove much material from a razor. Mostly, its scratch pattern creates a texture on the apex just like other finishing stones do. The Ark texture is finer than a coticule and not as even as the texture from a synthetic. To me, its feel is somewhere between a synthetic and a coticule. I haven’t done this, but I’ve been told that if you really push the edge on an Ark its appearance under the scope will be bad, but the feel will be amazing. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think that the edge will be quite fragile.