Thread: Poor newbie's hone set

Originally Posted by Barbu

I appreciate your feedback gentlemen! Really surprised of your opinions on the C12k, though! The Naniwa 12k is one of those things that seem ridiculously priced priced to me. About 170$ cad for grit in a block.. though currently on sale at paul's finest. I have the feeling I would get a hell of a buyer's remorse if I pulled the trigger on that. What did our ancestors use? I'm sure the common man didn't have expensive stones like that, or did they?

There are a few reasons for the feed back on the C12K. First and foremost that it isn't 12K, naturals can't really be grit rated. Second, natural stones vary from one to the next. Some Cnats make a very good shaving edge. Some are only good for mid level work. If you don't really know how to hone, you won't know how to assess your Cnat. And having a Cnat of unknown honing capacity makes it impossible to help because we simply won't know if your rock is one of the good ones, or one of the mid-level only stones.

If you get a good one they can be a really nice hone. I'd place my Cnat right up there with my Welsh Slates, Arkansas stones, and even my small Shoubudani. And I'd rather use any of those as a finisher than my Kuromaku 12K. Their edges just feel nicer.

I'm a little hesitant to suggest Bluesun hones because I don't have first hand experience with them, but if you look into them nicknbleeding gave Bluesun hones from Amazon a pretty good review. His thread should still be on the front page of the hones forum. I'd say get the 8K combination one and find something else for 1K bevel setting. Maybe a naniwa traditional.