Attention Nakayama Users

[zib]

I was wondering how many of the Nakayama users/owners are reluctant to lapp their Beautiful Japanese rock? I myself find it hard to do so, because I don't want to loose the Kanji on it. I use this stone as intended, as a finisher and sparingly. It is bar none the best finisher I've ever used. It gives my razors that velvet squeegee feeling. I do have Shapton, Escher, Coticule, Naniwa, Chinese 12k, and an array of Barber hones. I'd have to say that the Escher comes closest out of all of them.
Escher puts a nice smooth edge on your blade. My Nakayama remains true. I check it with a straight edge, but I know the day will come when I'll have to do it. How many of you are in a similar situation? How many have just thrown caution to the breeze and lapped it already?

[Kees]

My Nakayama is 2 sided. Stamps are on the widest side but I mainly use the narrower side. I have kept pics of the stamps as you recommend.

I do not use it with a slurry. I can't see the point after a coticule or an Escher.

[hoglahoo]

How do you know the original kanji wasn't already lapped off and someone scribbled it back on with a blue sharpie?

[zib]

How do you know the original kanji wasn't already lapped off and someone scribbled it back on with a blue sharpie?

I trust O_S and his judgement. Mine doesn't look look like someone did it with a sharpie, but point taken....

[Memorael]

I took a dmt to mine and funny enough it wasn't flat also a sort of skin fell off giving me a clearer looking stone and some karasu marks appeared on the bottom of the stone which made it really exciting, at first I though they were glazing marks but no. I also has a much finer and softer feeling than before. I would go for it just take pics and lap away, one other thing is my stone has maru hana stamps on the bottom proving it is a legit stone.

[bjorn]

Mine had some chips so I lapped it after I had taken some pictures to remind me of how it looked when I got it, performance wise it got much better after the lapping.

[StraightRazorDave]

I lapped mine after a bit of thought, but I'm glad I did. I checked the flatness of it before I did, and it was a bit off, but nothing drastic. But, seeing as I'm anal about those things I needed it perfectly flat.

I lost the kanji on it, but I took plenty of photos of it before hand. It was hard (emotionally I mean) to lap at first, but I bought it to be a finishing hone, not just a pretty stone. Besides, it's still a very pretty stone, you just don't have all those characters in the way obstructing the view!

[Visibility]

My personal opinion is if it needs to be lapped, lap it.

But it seems that you gain some enjoyment from the aesthetics of the stone with the Kanji, nothing wrong with that so long as the stone is flat.

I lapped mine off right away to make sure the stone was true.

[FatboySlim]

My personal opinion is if it needs to be lapped, lap it.

I agree. I absolutely love the look of the kanji, and it really hurt to lose it. But I took pictures and didn't look back. I like honing with a Nakayama even more than I like looking at it. And I like looking at it a lot.

The issue with me wasn't the stone being flat, it was dead flat. But it was glazing with use. My Asagi didn't glaze up with one razor, but with many razors, it lost some of its cut and feel. Not too much, but with stones this fine, a little is a lot, to me.

When I got my first Nakayama, it was a revelation, and I literally re-polished every razor I had on it. Over time with a dozens of razors, I tried keeping the surface clean with a Nagura. Over several cleanings, I had faded the kanji just by rubbing with the Nagura. Finally, I just used 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper to clean it, and lost all the kanji. On the positive side, the lapping really brought out the color of the stone after so much use.

Fortunately, my Asagi had a clear Maruka stamp on one end, which I protected when I sealed the edges of the stone with Japanese lacquer. That's enough for me, I guess.

[Visibility]

I'd love to say I'm all performance and no looks on all tools but I would be a hypocrite....so you "kanji keepers"....more power to you.

I have the cleanest cordless drill in town, though I did take the stickers off