Thread: Escher vs Jnat for finishing

I love everything about jnats.

Once I had a pro honed Escher finish from Hart Steel.
It was butter knife smooth . I was impressed although it's didn't last as long as I would have thought.
I can achieve that and better on my jnat.

Escher stones are a bit slim too. Saying that I wouldn't mind one

Jnats aremore universal stones - you can pass the midle grits on the progretion with a Jnat
Thuringians are what the nature make them - a finisher , and a deam good one .
Thuris leave this comfort feeling of the ultra fine serated edge and mre buttery smooth The Jnats leave that cold brutal sharpness , sharpand crispy , to perfection Well you can get 3 diferent kind of edjes from Jnat and from Esher , but they are both top of the food chain No doubth abbout it .
I have both TDhuris and Jnats and i suppose to be the biggest thuri fan so i will put them in almost equal position .
Jnats are better and practical as you can briefly manipulate the grit rate , steel remouval and finish from the stone , i a very wide range .
They are both very good stones - i dont gave my thuries , just because i have good Jnats , no Sir

I also started late to get into the Jnat theme. My thuringians give me all what I expect from an endfinished razor. And like Jimmy said the Jnats are very complex, it take a lot of time, efforts and money to get into the theme and really know what your are doing.
Meanwhile I have quite a lot of japanese stones, mostly ancient Nakayamas (kiita, asagi, tamagoiro, etc), Kuro renge and so on. And I really like the Jants in my progression because most of them are very fast and very fine. But from all of these stones I don't really like the edge they take as an endfinisher. Mostly for my taste the edge is too keen and crispy. So what I do is to hone razors on the Jnats to maximum keenness and then do the last strokes on a good thuringian to "smooth out" the razor edge. Or I use a thuringian slurry stone as the last "nagura" on the Jnats. For me that will give really perfect edges, whatever razor I will use.

I have one green Escher and one Nakayama Kiita so obviously that makes me an authority on the subject...
I don't compare the two, i just enjoy them for what they both are, great finishers.

The Escher’s and fine Thüringen’s were the Naniwia 12k’s of the day. Pretty bullet proof, just rub a well-set bevel on a wet stone and get a good shaving edge.

Jnats are more user dependent, and not all Jnats are razor quality, they are Naturals after all. Some in the right hands, are capable of a 2 percent better finish, than an Escher… As with any Naturals, there is a learning curve…

Not really a good comparison. What jnat are we talking about? It's like asking. What do you prefer? The ozuko asagi or European stones?

as it has been mentioned before. There's a lot of different jnats. Some good for razors others not so much.

The thuri is stupid easy to use and finish on. Some jnats are just as easy some of them are more tricky. It all depends on your stones and your skill level. a maxed out thuri edge is a joy to shave with. But so is a lot of other edges.

If you buy one high class finisher and learn how to use it to produce edges you like then it won't get much better than that. So take a pick on a finisher and hone daily. Try different things. After a while it will all come together.

This is just my two cents, some nuances that caught my eye. I don't mean to do any comparison/contrasting of my own, as I have never used a Japanese natural (I would have, but mail disaster) and have a limited experience with Thüringer stones (two specimens).

Originally Posted by Euclid440

not all Jnats are razor quality, they are Naturals after all.

I get that Thüringer hones are apparently more uniform than Japanese naturals, which come from a wide variety of veins and mountains as opposed to the Thüringen rocks. But even those are naturals as well, so one would think there would be some variation (as demonstrated by the colour differentiations and subsequent classification). This is meant as a nuance rather than criticism of your general point.

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

Jnat, hands down. An Escher is pretty much a finisher, but a good Jnat will handle all your honing needs (except restoration/heavy bevel setting) plus give you a superior edge in my experience. Add a 1k for bevel setting and you're set for life.

But doesn't a good Japanese natural require a full nagura set-up to be a relatively fast all-in-one progression? I mean, I have set a bevel, then moved on to use a Thüringer hone as the only stone after that a few times, so it is a viable one-stone option (viable as opposed to merely possible). The key is renewing the slurry in time, which takes a bit of practice.

You can get by quite nicely with just Botan, Mejiro, and Tomo nagura - and I frequently do. On very hard steels or larger bevels with lots of steel to remove (e.g.: Sheffield wedges), I do use a full set of Botan, Tenjyou, Mejiro, Koma, and Tomo nagura.