Thread: My Japanese Finishing Hones

Ok here are my Japanese natural hones.

But I should explain about the HGAL system that is used at Sazare, as two of my hones came from there.

The 'H' = Hardness is a 1 through 5 with '+' marked to indicate a plus alpha above the asigned number. 1 is soft and a 5 is hard, a 5+ is harder, and a 5++ is even harder.

The 'G' = Grit is a 1 through 3 with '+' marked to indicate a plus alpha above the asigned number. 1 is low grit and 3 is high. Japanese hones are typically designated one of three catagories rough, medium and fine. In this case woudl correspond with the 1, 2, 3. A 3+ would be higher and a 3++ would be higher still. The highest I recall seeing at Sazare is a 3++++.

The 'A' = Abbrassive is a 1 through 3 with '+' marked to indicate a plus alpha above the asigned number. 1is a slow cutting stone and a 3 is fast cutting one. One must also remember that this needs to correspond with the grit. i.e. a fast cutting 30000 is still not a fast cutting 1000. So it is in relation to the grit.

The 'L' =Lightness (or smoothness and feel of the hone in use) with '+' marked to indicate a plus alpha above the asigned number. 1 is a rough granulated feel and a 3 is a slick smooth feel when running the metal over the hone.


1. a Nakayama Maruichi. First pic is before I lapped it. Second is its current state.






2. a Kiita Akasasu Nashiji. This one I got from Sazare and is rated 5+ 3+++ 3++++ 3++++ on the HGAL scale. In other words the 5+ is very hard stone. 3+++ is very high grit. The 3++++ is a very very fast cutting hone for the assigned grit. And the last 3++++ is that it is a very slick feeling hone. And from my experience it is a what is rated.






3. a Mizu (water colour) Asagi. This on I also got from Sazare and is rated 5+++ 3++++ 3+++ 3+++ on the HGAL scale. This one from the grit rating is a much harder hone and has one more plus alpha indicator on the grit. It is very fine and is very very hard. The only down side to this hone is that it has a Crack that I haven't been able to lap out yet, so I have to avoid it when honing.





From what I can tell the Maruichi is the lowest grit with the second one in the middle and the third one the highest.

The end result of the Maruichi all by its self is just fine, better than fine: superb. Very keen and very smooth. But the edge off of the other two is a partial step up. They hone so that the scratch pattern is not scratched lines but more the cloudy look under 30x magnification. This is slightly different with each hone.

I plan on getting more of these but will be getting some coticles before I get any more Japanese Naturals.