Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
So just buy yourself some nagura progression pieces and a base piece of marble/slate/something hard. Why fork out Jnat-cash on a base stone you don't use? I've never understood the "logic" behind this nagura progression honing and then *not* using the base stone at the end.

My Nakayama asagi works extremely well without a "tomonagura", but if I ever feel in the need I rub it with a diamond plate to get some slurry. Works very well either way. So to answer your question yes there are Jnats out there that work very well with water only (sometimes I even use it dry - feels like silk no matter what you do with it in fact).

I think the trick is to get good information from a good vendor who is not just going to push what they have in stock on you. I waited almost 4 months for my stone to be sourced from Japan by my vendor, but then I think my guy works on a different time frame to many people. Well worth the wait, well worth the money.

Good luck.

James.
Good point!

Then people could get a small piece of a good Jnat, grind of a little with the DMT on a cheap marble plate and hone away.
I've tried some set ups like that but to me it seems the slurry needs a good base stone.
I don't know what's going on between the slurry and stone but my guess would be that the slurry particles get a good grip on the stones surface,
so they can work on the steel moving on top of it and in the same process their cutting abilities diminishes.
Another base stone gives another result, sure they are "used", at the end all the slurry does is to lubricate.

Do you say a good finisher should always be able to be used with water only and the Nagura thing is just some trick if you have lower quality stones?