Quote Originally Posted by Utopian View Post
While I can appreciate the desire to avoid wasting a hone, in my experience a properly lapped hone always performs better than one that is not lapped. It doesn't matter whether the hone is synthetic or natural, a perfectly flat hone is going to perform much better. If you bought a Nakayama hone to look at the pretty kanji, fine. Put it on a shelf and admire how pretty it is. If you bought it to hone razors, you're better off ensuring that it is flat.
I completely agree. It's a tool to me, not a work of art and its purpose is to be used. I have good art on the wall, but I wouldn't use my etchings or japanese woodblock prints to strop my razor on any more than I would hang a hunk of honing stone on the wall.

Regards,
Neil

Hold on a minute - maybe I should investigate the semi mystic qualities of japanese woodblock inks of the 19th century as an alternative to chrome-oxide - I might be onto something