Thread: Synthetic progression end result?

Oh, I meant to add that if you have trouble with the stone loading up when you're honing certain steels, King makes an 8k 'nagura' that's great for freshening up a synth, and you can make slurry with it too.

At 8k you don't have to worry as much about contaminating 8k or lower stones, you can speed up your honing even on coarser stones with a little 8k slurry, and it smoothes the surface of the hone too. At about $12 from Amazon Prime, it isn't cheap for what it is, but it is a nice accessory.

I use it post-honing to clean the stone too.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

Oh, I meant to add that if you have trouble with the stone loading up when you're honing certain steels, King makes an 8k 'nagura' that's great for freshening up a synth, and you can make slurry with it too.

At 8k you don't have to worry as much about contaminating 8k or lower stones, you can speed up your honing even on coarser stones with a little 8k slurry, and it smoothes the surface of the hone too. At about $12 from Amazon Prime, it isn't cheap for what it is, but it is a nice accessory.

I use it post-honing to clean the stone too.

Cheers, Steve

Oh yes, that is perfect I am going to purchase that right now. I recently tried the brown cube nagura that came with the Naniwa chosera 1k on my shapton glass 1k to see what would happen and wow!!! I didn't have to use pressure at all to set the bevel and the bevel was the cleanest and straightest I have ever achieved. I then finished with X strokes right on the same SG 1k.

And like the Naniwa brown biscuit, throw the King in a cup of water when you start honing. It needs a little soak.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

And like the Naniwa brown biscuit, throw the King in a cup of water when you start honing. It needs a little soak.

Cheers, Steve

Will do! Thank you

I use the Naniwa brown biscuit to clean up all my synthetics as-needed. It does the job pretty good, and so far hasn't managed to contaminate anything.

I used the brown biscuit for years, but like the King a bit better because it smoothes the hone. I've always thought that a coarser finish on a fine hone wasn't the best - the Arkansas effect - but I have no evidence of it. I still use the BB on coarser stones.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

I used the brown biscuit for years, but like the King a bit better because it smoothes the hone. I've always thought that a coarser finish on a fine hone wasn't the best - the Arkansas effect - but I have no evidence of it. I still use the BB on coarser stones.

Cheers, Steve

How low do you go with this King 8k nagura? I purchased it btw.

Originally Posted by Steve56

I used the brown biscuit for years, but like the King a bit better because it smoothes the hone. I've always thought that a coarser finish on a fine hone wasn't the best - the Arkansas effect - but I have no evidence of it. I still use the BB on coarser stones.

Cheers, Steve

I'm of the same frame of mind with smooth stones. I think smoother is better, especially with high grit hones. All my naturals have had the stuffing polished out of them. Some of my barber hones too. I've considered at least smoothing out the synthetics but there's a lot of convenience in just scrubbing them twice up and down with the red biscuit and being happy with the relatively scratch free surface. It's not as bad as my DMT 325 was, or my EZE LAP plate which I believe to be about a 1K plate.

And so many here with far more experience than me just do a few figure 8s with their DMT 325 across all their synthetics and call it good. No Naniwa biscuit or other smoothing action, just hone right on the 325 scratches. So...who knows?