Thread: My first jnat

Originally Posted by brightred

i have little experience with a limited number of jnats, so no expert here...

anyway. i own one of these newer shobudanis (not from maksim). i does look nice, but has some inclusions that you feel when honing with little slurry. needless to say that it is worthless as a finisher, but it is a good and too expensive platform to test different tomo naguras. as jnats recommends, i'd stay away from these.

good stones are expensive, but as long as it does not have to be a perfectly shaped kiita, you might get an excellent nakayama or narutaki from alex or japanese-whetstones.com (have not bought from him, but he has some stones i'd really love to try...). and as usual, patience is your friend!

hans

Thank you Hans, that's me. And I agree, Alex also has a lot of quality razor stones, old stock is were the magic is and he knows his stone very well. I have a lot of respect for him. "has some stones i'd really love to try..." ...well, I'm sending out 3 of them on loan next Friday (AFTER the final coat of Urushi Kaptain Zero requested cures, so his ships 'first') I don't like to ship loaners through customs, but I see you're in Switzerland. I'm wrapping up my contract (today actually) and my wife and I plan on returning in late spring for reunion/gatherings there. I could pack a couple stones for to try if you live by Geneva or possibly val-de-travers were we might pass through the last days to visit absinthe distilleries. PM me around April if you can meetup, and we'll make plans. (after all my wife *loves* it when I pack stones in our luggage.) Also, congratulations on your Narutaki- Many Narutaki are superb stones for razors and quite rare, in consequence most who don't collect old stock are unaware of the quality that came from that mine. I'm impressed by your choice. Sounds like you got a gem.

Originally Posted by jnats

Thank you Hans, that's me.

now that i re-read the thread it is quite obvious... silly me :-) i'll write an e-mail tommorow!

regards,
hans

Quick update.
I finally decided on a kiita from Japanese-whetstones.com. I really didn't know what to look for, so Garret, with my specifications, existing hone set up and budget guided me in the right direction.
Im really quite excited and cant wait to put some steel to it. An Iwasaki Tamahagane kamisori will be my first to be tested followed by a Hayashi diamond that should be winging my way any day soon.

I received my Nakayama Kitta and naguras last week, obviously I'm very happy!
So far I've just used Koma dilutions and a few light laps on just water. Coming off my 10k superstone the edge produced is smoother and kenner but I know I'm a way off from perfection.
Garrett was a gent to do business with, I was essentially, to me, just buying a bit of rock and going by trust. I can thoroughly recommend Japanese-whetstones.com, the service provided was excellent in all areas.

The pics

Originally Posted by jnats

Many newer stock shobu are inclusion prone. Narutaki is fantastic, located about a kilometer from Nakayama. Old ozuku are fantastic, the newer stock hard ozuku are scratchier and leave a more aggressive edge. Harsh is terms of jnats, though still much smoother and healthier than a Gok 20k. Narutaki supplied a lot of surgeons stones as did Nakayama- which of course was tier 1 for the emperors samurai, and later temple carpenters. There are great Ozaki, Okudo (kiita and asia layers mostly though suita and asagi layers there also lent well to some fantastic razor stones) Narutaki and some old stock ozuku are going to be the bulk makeup of what will give you the sharpest edges. Some Nakayama are sharper- but more importantly, Nakayama razor quality characteristics are much smoother and more refined edges- the best formed edges along with Narutaki, under a scope and by way of edge retention. Third would be honing directly on a hone made up of Asano mikawa Koma nagura. These are generalities, as each stone is different, but working with stones from all the best mines, these are high frequency observations.

Great observation in this post above.

Inclusions prone, scary idea but true. One active mine near Kyoto, out beyond Kameoka, still does use dynamite in removing waste material near and around the layers of awasedo, I have a video that actually shows this procedure. I was told by my mentor that this can lead to stones that when new look fine but over time will develop faults that can crack.

You are correct, the Maurichi stamp has nothing to do with Nakayama stones. The fellow who owns the Maruichi stamps has been selling off his fathers stock at flea markets for about 15 years. His father had a store in Kyoto and the son, a nice enough fellow is trying hard and some of his stones are actually Nakayama rock, but the vast majority of his stones are pretty generic and I think for him it is more of a liquidation thing tourists and not his first occupation.

Alex Gilmore

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

This hit the nail on the head - the surface is loaded with tiny dark specks <1mm across that sparkle when you turn it in the light. When I run my fingers over the surface I can feel them very slightly. Paper weight?

Contact Maksim and explain your issue, that is not an expensive stone, I am sure something can be worked out.

Originally Posted by mainaman

Contact Maksim and explain your issue, that is not an expensive stone, I am sure something can be worked out.

I am the second owner, but the original owner provided a copy of the receipt from Maksim and it was $250.00. I no longer own the stone, it has gone to work in a non-razor environment. I now have an Ozuku Kiita from JNATS and it has solved all of my issues.