Thread: Please school me on natural hones

Definitely food for thought!

I now have to decide. Part of me wants to experiment with the naturals. looks like I would be into that for a minimum of about $125-$150 for a good stone. Or I can go with the practical Naniwa 12K or Shapton 16K for about $90-$130. DECISIONS!

Well thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Insisting that you need a mega costly natural finisher is like and audiophile insisting that he needs those ridiculously expensive gold plated cables to make the music sound good.

Yes, but several of my hones go to 11!

Actually it's not real hard to improve an 8k edge on a Jnat that is not classed as a top notch finisher but of course, your next step will be to want a top notch finisher. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Natural hones....
Very varying.
Same pile of two can produce two slabs of rock that perform night and day within feet of each other.
They can be expensive. Addictive. Fun.
Slow.

Coticules are like finding a needle in a haystack, from my experience. I've tried several, and they are good, but take a lot of time, especially if you are still new. My first successful natural stone was a type 100 shuobudani hone from maksim at japanesenaturalstones.com. it is slightly small, but very affordable. Like $50 affordable. I love this stone, and was able to improve my edges with my first honing session, and it has only improved since. Now that I'm a more proficient honer, I've been looking at bigger, pricier stones.

Am reasonably new but getting very good results from the highest rated slate stone from aj_1001 on the bay. Using watery lather. definitely improves the edge from my fast coticule. Also if you buy just this instead of set of three is very nice price. My two cents.

your not using a natural now, so why change if your getting good edges, as a purist you can stay all Synthetics ,, but if you just want a natural then get them,, whatever works tc

What are these....how you say....."synthetics" people are talking about?

I began natural, fell in love, and haven't looked back since. Romancing the stone. Someday I must go to the Guangxi providence.

Originally Posted by Steel

I began natural, fell in love, and haven't looked back since. Romancing the stone. Someday I must go to the Guangxi providence.

Honing is for me a necessary evil as a knifemaker. I don't get emotional over a piece of rock, and above else I want it to go fast and predictable. That is why I stick with the simple synthetics in order to get a good edge as quickly as possible, starting with setting a bevel on a freshly ground razor.

Honing is imo like doing the dishes after cooking a good meal.

Well the rabbit hole is deep for sure. BUT with one Jnat for example you can get many different edges from it. All good IMO. Once you pass the learning curve your on easy street. For me anyway I would be bored to death shaving the exact same edge everyday. Not saying you should only saying you could. A synth edge is like recipe honing, very effective and nothing wrong with it at all. My only advice would be to stay away from the crazy hard stones. There are alot of stones that are softer yet produce very well. JMHO and not knocking any advice here at all. At the end of the day its your money and your call.