Thread: Jnat Finisher honing with Water Only

James
I also learned from So-san about the diamond nagura (DN) years ago, and my worn out Atoma's have tamed many a hard stone. I know that JNS does not recommend using a diamond plate for raising a slurry, it is a great tool and a modern application. Some suggest that using a DN is a waste of good stone. I disagree in that if you use a tomonagura to raise a slurry, it is going to be either the tomo or the base stone that is providing the slurry, and tomonagura are not cheap themselves if they are of the same qualtiy as the base stone.

There are inexpensive tomonagura that might be excellent quality, and those should be picked up whenever possible, ultra quality tomonagura are cut up from ultra quality larger stones. The beauty of the DN is that the slurry is pure base stone particles, it costs no more in dollars or U.K. pounds than the tomo slurry and it matches the base stone perfectly.

It is common to think that a smaller piece of a base stone can be cut and used as a tomonagura for that same base stone, this hardly ever works because one of the two stone being of equal hardness will scratch another leaveing gouges. A DN elimanates this problem. I can assure you that if the diamond plate had been invented 50 years ago some fellows would have used them as DN too. In the really old days though they had access to quality semi-hard stones and super fine grit medium hard stones for razors. Our problem, challange, or gift however you want to look at it now is that so many excellent medium hard stones are so expensive and hard to get and the ultra hard stones are the common goto razor hone. The ultra hard stones can be fine or act as a fine stone too, but they can be ornery. A spanking with a diamond nagura can straighten them up in a hurry.

Alex Gilmore