TL;DR though self taught with the help of SRP, i have all the stones i need, and enough skill to use them.. Then there's curiosity and HAD.

okay, so i have a worn dmt8c(325grit), a few synthetic slip stones (1k, broken 4k, an 8k) some barber hones (swatys and others), and a number of natural stones, charnley forest, cretan, hard ark, rozsutec, some coticules, a bbw, boxed thuringians, an escher, a soft jnat of decent quality and a medium hard jnat of uncertain/dubious quality (what appears to be veins of harder stone, not sure if you'd call it a toxic line or not, and occasional delamination of the layers of the stone).. it is possible that both jnats are better for knives, or prepolishing before a better finisher..

i like natural stones.. i know i could save up and spend my money on a gokumyo<sp?> 20k an get great edges, but it wouldnt be as fun..

i have a Barbers Delight Escher.. great stone, nearly pristine lable, and the original cardboard box that is starting to fall apart.. i recently got a small boxed stone that i think is a black thuringian.. sharp smooth edges, about as good as one could expect from a thuringian i guess(?), though i will have to hone the one razor that produced a velvet squeegee with the BD escher, and see if it can really replace the escher..

TL;DR I have a nice kamisori and want a nice jnat, and likely a set of nagura for it as well and am considering starting with a shuobudani 100, though maybe a should save up for a 'better' stone..

i also have a NOS inuoe tosuke kamisori, and have been wanting a hard fine jnat for that, and for other razors in general..

so.. my questions to you with experience with jnats are:

those of you that have a shuobudani 100, what do you think of it, and how would you compare it to other stones (other shuobu 100s, jnat finishers, or other types of finishers)?

i dont mind the size of the 100s, its just wide enough for my kamisori, and a good size for hand honing.. im used to 150x50 stones.. maybe i would be better off with a good koppa that was a bit wider.. while i do a rolling x stroke on all my western razors, it seems that x strokes are less common, let alone rolling x strokes, in honing kamisori..they seem to be meant to have a truly straight edge.. having a stone that is wide enough to keep the whole blade on the stone and do circles seems to be an advantage..

do you finish on your shuobu 100 with a tomonagura, or just water? do the shuobu 100s autoslurry at all? how hard are they?

while producing a finer and more polished edge, might i loose some of the buttery-ness of the escher simply because the edge is that much more refined? or is it possible to equal or excede both smoothness and keenness of an escher with a jnat?


TL;DR all i really need in a jnat is a finisher, and maybe a tomonagura, but havin a full set of nagura for jnat honing has its appeal..

as far as asano naura go, is the botan really coarse enough for bevel setting work? is it a suitable replacement for a 1k? or is it closer to your typical coticule with slurry for speed? how does it compare? how many people think it is worthwhile to buy a botan nagura?

i've heard it said that some tenjyou and some mejiro are about as fine, some times one being finer than the other or vice-versa.. if they are both similarly fine, is there really an advantage to having both?

koma nagura are supposed to be finer than the other three, and quite fast from what i have read.. however going to a tomonagura many people do not seem to need them to bridge the gap.. how many think it is worthwhile to buy a koma nagura?


I think that's it for now.. thanks for reading, and for any advice/experience you can share..