Thoughts and Concerns with this JNAT

So I bought a nice shobudani with a tomonagura and a set of mikawa naguras. They are working great.

However before that purchase, I made an uneducated decision and got this on eBay. It finally made it's way to me. The seller 330mate has very mixed reviews when doing a search here and other places. It is a huge stone compared to my Shobudani.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...1115ef8fdd.jpg

Stone's Spec from seller:
67 x 205 x 35mm

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[TD="width: 50.0%"]1,073g

Rated as a H4 in hardness by seller

He states it to be a Honyama stone but I have no idea what it means. The stone has a velvety smooth feel when running my fingers on the surface. I am curious on how well it will work. Any recommendations on how to tackle it?[/TD]

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The only real way to know what it is like is to give it a spin, test and compare. Hone a razor up to shave ready on your other stone(s) and then take it to the unknown stone and see what it does.

If I were to guess I would say it is very likely to be softer then the shobudani, and will probably not be as nice a finisher.

Whether it is useful somewhere in your progression is something only you can decide.

If you got the shobudani, tomonagura and mikawa naguras all together as a “matched set” you have all the stones you need to get to a great edge (if you put in the time to learn them).

Now the thing with 330 mate is that he isa junker - He colects defect stones that the miners throw away years ago
His stones are too soft or with toxic lines and cracks You can see on the pictura that the consistency of the stone is uneven - it has at least 3 toxic lines - i can see from here .
Now lap the stone good and try it It may be good for kitchen knifes You can seee a pure part in it and cut a small koppa as a small pure hone
Enjoy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrDalton

The only real way to know what it is like is to give it a spin, test and compare. Hone a razor up to shave ready on your other stone(s) and then take it to the unknown stone and see what it does.

If I were to guess I would say it is very likely to be softer then the shobudani, and will probably not be as nice a finisher.

Whether it is useful somewhere in your progression is something only you can decide.

If you got the shobudani, tomonagura and mikawa naguras all together as a “matched set” you have all the stones you need to get to a great edge (if you put in the time to learn them).

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I've got a set of mikawa naguras and a tomonagura for the shobudani. I do not have a tomo nagura for this one though. Still learning the shobudani and have gotten good results with my German razors. I am trying my Edv Neistrom and Swedish steel is killing me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RusenBG

Now the thing with 330 mate is that he isa junker - He colects defect stones that the miners throw away years ago
His stones are too soft or with toxic lines and cracks You can see on the pictura that the consistency of the stone is uneven - it has at least 3 toxic lines - i can see from here .
Now lap the stone good and try it It may be good for kitchen knifes You can seee a pure part in it and cut a small koppa as a small pure hone
Enjoy

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Forgive my ignorance since a lot of this is over my head. What is a toxic line? And for lapping, I assume you mean using a DMT 325 (This is still on my to buy list. If anyone wants to part ways with their broken in DMT 325, I am all ears).

Regarding breaking it into a koppa, I wouldn't know where to start.

I tried setting a bevel and I think it worked well but I wasn't able to finish the progression so will do a take two when I get the chance.

You will have to test drive the stones and find out wether they are up to the job.
A toxic line is a vein that contains hard bits that scratch your cutting edge. Not all veins on Jnats are toxic. You can run a practice razor's edge over the line and check wether it caused a deep scratch in the cutting edge. You can also look at the line with a loupe and check if you see any shiny crystals in it. If so it probably is toxic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RusenBG

Now the thing with 330 mate is that he isa junker - He colects defect stones that the miners throw away years ago
His stones are too soft or with toxic lines and cracks You can see on the pictura that the consistency of the stone is uneven - it has at least 3 toxic lines - i can see from here .
Now lap the stone good and try it It may be good for kitchen knifes You can seee a pure part in it and cut a small koppa as a small pure hone
Enjoy

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Well Rusen i agree to that to a certain point, and yes he also sells rubish....on the other hand i bought two very nice stones from him which i do like very much....

So its a bit like darkness and light...you have to know what youre searching for and then you might be in the position to evaluate if the stone might be a good one or not. Then you can hit the button.

Especially when you start honing and have no clue on Jnats, its hard to come around here. I mostly looked out for homogenious stones with specific identifiers...