Thread: Trying to learn my Nakayama

I never use slurry on my Nakayama. Can't see the point coming off an Escher or coticule. 50 laps without slurry is all you need. Off the Escher or coticule initially it feels like the Nakayama grips the razor, after about 40-50 laps the razor moves across the hone with much less resistance. That's when you want to stop, strop and shave.

Hello Nikolas

It sounds to me like you are spending too much time on this final stone. If you beginning with a shave ready edge just before you go to your Nakayama, then why all the effort? The Nakayama can be used to just refine the edge one more step and this means in simple terms just replacing the previous scratches with new finer ones. I would suggest that you cut all of your routine in half, do half the number of strokes on the naguras and tomo nagura and see where this gets you. If the edge does not suit you, try 20% more in number or 20% fewer. Alx

First, Birnando is your answer. Visit him & bring a bottle(s) of cheer & enjoy the educational journey. Just a couple hours will will teach you more than weeks of reading on here...proof is in the pudding.

Second, is that razor a known good razor? Just a reminder that there are getting to be more and more razors out there that have a good name, but someone who doesn't know what they are doing has put it to some buffers to make it shiney...but only ruined a once nice razor.

Thanks for all the good answers. I visited Birnando and found that I was spending to much time with the stone, cutting my routine in half did wonders for the razor. I was only trying to stick to the routine described by another guy here on the forum, the routine probably worked for his stone but not for mine. Took me a while to understand that natural stones will always be different.
Anyways, I am now shaving comfortably with my Dovo test razor, trying to improve my edges from good to better thanks to Birnando and SRP.

Originally Posted by nikolasnjerve

Thanks for all the good answers. I visited Birnando and found that I was spending to much time with the stone, cutting my routine in half did wonders for the razor. I was only trying to stick to the routine described by another guy here on the forum, the routine probably worked for his stone but not for mine. Took me a while to understand that natural stones will always be different.
Anyways, I am now shaving comfortably with my Dovo test razor, trying to improve my edges from good to better thanks to Birnando and SRP.

Nikolas
Lucky you had someone close at hand and willing to share his first hand knowledge. happy shaving, Alx

Nikolas,

When I first started w/ my asagi, I used WAY too thick a slurry to do anything but dull the edge. With each stone being different, I can't make suggestions as to what your stone likes, but in almost all stones, the successful slurries have been very dilute - such that if they were evenly distributed on the stone - it would look like there might not be any.

+1 w/ Riooso about connecting w/ Birnando. I'd do that in a heartbeat. There are a bunch of guys I wish were local - Birnando is one. The time you spend w/ him will likely cut days or weeks from your learning that stone. 'Hope you get to enjoy that time.

Hi!

I am curious what happened on your nakayama adventure in honing.
Did you figure things out?

When I finish on my nakayama I use light slurry and make 30 strokes and test.

After visiting Birnando I finally managed to hone most of my razors. some of them really does not respond well with the J-nat at all, but I suppose that is how it is with these stones.
The trick was ( as most of you mentioned ) lightening the slurry, and not expect the final tomo slurry to break down. I also skipped about 30-40 strokes on different slurrys.
Honing eastern kamisori is very different on this stone.
Some pictures of a Dovo coming off the Nakayama.

Shapton 1k. Shapton 8k

Mejiro. Tomo
Shave ready

Very cool. Thanks!

What do you mean by not expecting the slurry to break down?

Thank you for the edge pic's. That shave ready shot is impressive.