Thread: Escher vs Jnat for finishing

Same for me. I find both stones give me great edges, but they need to be used completely differently. Thuringians (Eschers) need to be used for final finishing only, as they don't really have any ability to remove much steel. So I hone on synthetics up to at least 8k and usually more like 12k before using one of my Escher stones.

JNats can do a little more heavy lifting if they are used with a "diamond nagura" slurry, and one can even follow a 1k bevel setter with it. I still prefer final finishing on a JNat using tomonagura slurry though. I often do a progression of 1k to 1-2 "diamond nagura" slurries to 2-3 consecutive tomo slurries. If you want to use just the tomo slurry alone it's better to take the edge up to at least 8k synthetic first.