Thread: Karasu Japanese Whetstone

Originally Posted by BostonBlades

Well said, There is actually a local place that specializes in honing straight razors I just located. I'm headed there Thursday to have a blade honed and pick up a starter kit for honing and a dvd. The jnats are pretty but thats like putting the keys to a stick shift in a new drivers hands.... it'll only end badly, haha.

make sure they hone on stones and not on belt sanders. Ask them to show you their tools, because if they are a knife sharpening business that hones razors in the meantime, your razor may suffer

That was my first concern when looking up local sharpening businesses, The place I'm going to hones the blades up to 30k sharpton finishing stone. No belt sanders, I'm going to be waiting there while he does the sharpening so I'll keep a close eye.

Originally Posted by BostonBlades

That was my first concern when looking up local sharpening businesses, The place I'm going to hones the blades up to 30k sharpton finishing stone. No belt sanders, I'm going to be waiting there while he does the sharpening so I'll keep a close eye.

I see you're in Mass and a 30k shapton ..... If the guy's name is Howard you'll be alright.

Jimmy, you beat me too it!!

You guys are good. Yes that's who I'm headed to see, spoke on the phone with him a few days ago very friendly guy

So is Howard!
the 30k shapton is a nice edge but some of my razors seem to not like it and for them i just go back and give them a 12 laps or so on the 16k... probably just a personal thing.

enjoy,
jim

I purchased a less costly stone from Japan. The vendor, while not perfectly fluent in English, was very willing to provide info on the prescribed use for the stone. You need to ask if they are intended for use with a straight razor. No matter the cost, all of them aren't .

Not all Karasu are $500, this one set me back $70. It's an excellent stone.

Originally Posted by Bayamontate

Not all Karasu are $500, this one set be back $70. It's an excellent stone.

I'm no expert on j-nats but I think price for karasu stones is related to the beauty and size of the stone, as well as how fine a grit it is. The larger rectangular stones with skin, maybe kanji, and a beautiful pattern throughout can be very expensive from what little I've seen. OTOH, as Bayamontate pointed out, a less expensive stone may be just great if it is a razor stone.

Agreed, if this stone were twice as wide and had more Karasu pattern it would cost 5X more. This particular stone is excellent on razors and Japanese Kamisori.