Thread: Can anyone shed light on this nagura?

I found it at a Japanese knife shop/razor store in town. I have only tried it on my PHIG, as I don't have any other natural stones except a coticule.

the color and texture remind me a bit of a amakusa which would be realy coarse and slurry would be kind of overkill but then on the other hand, I have no bloody idea what I'm talking about when it comes down to Jnat's

I think it's in the coarse ballpark. It is soft, and makes a peaches and cream coloured slurry. I might just use it to clean my King1200 and whatnot.

I recently got one, likely from the same guys. Don't know much about nagura stones though. Mine had some small black inclusions but I haven't tried it out yet.
I also got a black nagura stone which I have yet to try.
Letus know how it goes.

I'm very new to the world of Jnats, so my observations should be treated as such. I tried the nagura on my Chinese hone and got an orangey-creamy coloured slurry that seemed fairly middle-grit. However, I am working on a big, wedgy homemade razor in O1 steel with wide bevels (hone wear from experimentation) so everything seems slow.

I couldn't get much from the phig/nagura so I went back and forth to my coticule several times to set a secondary bevel (one layer of electrical tape).

A lot of pressure seems to be needed with nagura slurry, but then you can't get to a fine edge. So I kept honing and diluting till after dark, ending with phig on phig and light pressure rolling x strokes. Then about 100 passes on bridle leather.

Shaved ok but skipped over some neck stubble etc. Long road.

you made the blade yourself as well? wauw when I saw your post in a different thread I thought you had a huge old blade with kind of a unique design which you rescaled, now I know you made the blade as well, my cinsere compliments

Thanks, Bram. Well, I have taken at least part of the plunge and bought an Ohira Jnat, which is a beautiful greenish-bluish range of colours, but seems to be a pre-finisher (discussed in another post). I tried the nagura with it last night on a different razor (also big home-made one in O1 steel). I couldn't get any better than a hazy finish for now (which didn't shave well), but I will do more work before drawing any conclusions across the board. I think my stone will be great for hamon projects (or kitchen knives) but may not be fine enough for finishing. And this nagura seems to be in the same ballpark of early/mid progression, but I'm not sure.

I think I'll try to get a mirror polish again on diamond film and then come back to this stone and/or nagura to see the striations they leave with a reliable frame of reference (even though it's going back in grit).

If anyone else is considering this nagura (and for Seumas' benefit), I would recommend this nagura stone for knife work more than razor for now, but will post again if I can get further with it.

mikawa is a midrange stone, not coarse but not a finisher, can you get any more I would buy one from you if you can. I have a tomo and a botan, would like to try a mikawa.