Thread: Unknown Jnat finisher, need info about the surface

Hi,

I have what I think is an old barber's hone from Japan. My question is, first of all, can anyone tell from the pics if it's legit? No stamps or anything exists anymore. Secondly, are those dark spots on the surface "yake"? Is there anything you can spot on the surface of the hone that should be worrying, when it comes to honing razors? I am not worried about the one at the top, naturally, that one won't get hit at all.

Attached a picture, wet and dry. If anyone can help, I can post more close-ups as well. The one here is the orange dot in the center-right section, as seen through a magnifying glass.

I have the hone with me, I should say.. so I can do some tests as well, if someone can provide guidance. It's a hard stone..I have 3 more jnats at home to compare and I'd say this is a level 5 (or close to it).

Many thanks in advance!

Hello Srdjan
That stone does have a heavy patch of yaki which does not necessarly have to be toxic or bad for your blade, you just have to test it. Try honing on that end only with all the brown yaki and see what happens, it won't ruin your blade, if it does scratch your bevel it can be honed out with your next bevel set. Just see what the worst is that the stone can offer and everything is better after that. You never know it might be an excellent bevel setting stone stone so test it out with a diamond plate generated slurry.

Alex

Alex, thanks so much for responding so quickly. I have great respect for you, sir.

Before posting the thread I've tried the hone in a standard way, so honing accross the whole surface, from 1K Naniwa SS. Then switched to tsushima nagura on this stone, did a few refreshes of the slurry and then switched to tomo nagura (I raised it with a very hard slurry stone, I know to be harder than this). After that I finished on water. The razor was around hht4-5, so I am inclined to believe this is a finishing stone.. but your idea of the yaki region possibly being good for bevel setting is quite mind blowing. I imagine if that's the case, this might prove to be a really versatile stone.

I think I will have some time later today/tonight to spend a bit more on it and focus my cheapo loupe well enough, to see the scratch marks. I examined the scratches already yesterday, but honestly I was totally confused (I think the angle of the light contributes to that as well).

I found that to get the most out of looking at scratch patterns it helps to make them in different directions from one stone to the next, then you can see which stone or group of scratches are removing the last ones or making new ones. I find examining circular strokes confussing when looking at them, so one example would be to begin with diagonal strokes with your first stone and then follow with straight edge on or opposite diagonal direction strokes. These second set of scratches can tell you how fast your stone is cutting if you count strokes. Some stones actually abrade steel faster than others.

With hard or super hard stones your shave is going to have a lot to do with your bevel setting because a half set or not fully set bevel is hard to finish on your last stones if those stones are slow cutting like if you are using with water only. A slurry usually jump starts the cutting powers of any stone including Arkansas or Coticule or synthetics for that matter.

Good Luck
Alex

I think only a proper microscope can show the truth about the scratch patterns (like in the pics you've shown, Alex). There are too many variables with a cheap LED loupe, so nowdays I only use the loupe to make sure the edge is nice and even, with no deep scratches and shiny glowing spots (especially along the very apex)

After having had my play with the hone, the conclusion is it's definitely a finisher. Sure enough, I honed in different direcions and observed the scratches, to a certain extent. It helped a lot to figure out what tomo does, what other naguras do and what plain water does as well. Yake does not hurt the edge at all, in fact I found no difference to the bottom part of the stone, other than a slightly different feel and feedback on the razor while honing. It's a somewhat slow stone, but a great polisher.

Well anyway, I've given it away in a trade now. My goal at the moment is to try as many hones as possible, to learn as much as possible. I only keep one jnat with me permanently.. and it's a hand-held size as well. [emoji4] I am still waiting for the right bench size hone to take its place.