Thread: An option on sealing Jnats

Either would be fine, I prefer the look of the varnish/enamel/lacquer to tile/masonry sealers, but just MO.

Don't overthink it lol.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

Either would be fine, I prefer the look of the varnish/enamel/lacquer to tile/masonry sealers, but just MO.

Don't overthink it lol.

Cheers, Steve

Hey neighbor! Lol. Just noticed were you are from.I Iive in Cocke County, the city of Newport.

Howdy, Beautiful country up that way! I get up that way fairly often to hike in Greenbrier or Big Creek. If you want to meet up and try some jnats, be glad to help.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

Howdy, Beautiful country up that way! I get up that way fairly often to hike in Greenbrier or Big Creek. If you want to meet up and try some jnats, be glad to help.

Cheers, Steve

I just talked with Alex from Japan stone last week and he said that he was going to meet up with a Straight razor buddy in Knoxville. Lol. You must be the guy! Greenbrier is beautiful, some great trout fishing their.You ever hiked to Ramseys Cascade? On the jnats subject do you know Doc226? I just purchased a Boker silver steel, and ole Doc is going to put a Nakayama kiita edge on it for me.

Originally Posted by Southbound

I just talked with Alex from Japan stone last week and he said that he was going to meet up with a Straight razor buddy in Knoxville. Lol. You must be the guy! Greenbrier is beautiful, some great trout fishing their.You ever hiked to Ramseys Cascade? On the jnats subject do you know Doc226? I just purchased a Boker silver steel, and ole Doc is going to put a Nakayama kiita edge on it for me.

Yep, that was me, go take a peek at 'jnat club' thread. Alfredo and I are friends. He has a razor of mine that he has rescaled and I should post his images over on the SR thread. You'll like his jnat edge.

I've been to Ramsay Cascades several times but not in recent years, need to get back. I've also hiked the Greenbrier Pinnacle trail several times, but that trail hasn't been maintained in years and has been impassable for some time. I've always wanted to do the Cat Stairs and the area around them but would hesitate to go off trail without someone who knows where they're going.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

Yep, that was me, go take a peek at 'jnat club' thread. Alfredo and I are friends. He has a razor of mine that he has rescaled and I should post his images over on the SR thread. You'll like his jnat edge.

I've been to Ramsay Cascades several times but not in recent years, need to get back. I've also hiked the Greenbrier Pinnacle trail several times, but that trail hasn't been maintained in years and has been impassable for some time. I've always wanted to do the Cat Stairs and the area around them but would hesitate to go off trail without someone who knows where they're going.

Cheers, Steve

Steve it's a small world! Great to meet you friend! When i purchase my jnat i will most definitely deal with Alex. He's a very nice and knowledgeable guy. Ive learned alot reading his blog. Alfredo is a talented guy, ive seen some of his restorations on his site. Ive heard he can put a laser sharp, but smooth edge on a razor.
Thanks,
Mike

Spar urethane should be fine. If the stone gets a lot of use, you may need to sand it and apply another coat at some point.

I don't know about adhesion to raw stone, but there is a universal rule in finishes - shellac sticks to anything. Shellac also doesn't tolerate being soaked that well (but it will re-dry and lose most of the blushing that occurs due to water).

I think a good regimen is as follows:
* seal the stone with whatever you'd like (you can try spar urethane, and if that works by itself, you're done)
* if you want to seal with something else (cashew lacquer, etc), then do that
* apply a couple of coats of shellac to the cashew lacquer as a "glue" between coats of potentially problematic finishes
* then apply the spar urethane on top of the shellac

i haven't seen any good razor stones that are porous enough that even shellac would be an issue (and a thin coat of shellac flashes off quickly, so it would be dry before it penetrates much, anyway)

The one benefit of spar urethane is that you can build it pretty quickly, and not much else builds like urushi.

There are two considerations in all of this:
1) sealing the stone in the short term
2) finding something that works in the long term

If you go just to straight spar urethane, you won't know if there are long term adhesion problems until the long term has passed. If you seal with shellac or something that is well tested for sealing a stone and then use a bridge coat of shellac (if you use something other than shellac as a base) and finish with something that is water tolerant, there is a long history of long term success doing that.

There is potential that some of these finishes will be very hard and chip a little bit when you bevel a stone. That has happened for me with just plain shellac (which looks nice all by itself).

I'd avoid water-based finishes, just my opinion. There are a lot out there, but they're generally variations on acrylic finishes no matter what they say, and they do have decent water resistance once they've finished curing, but not total (if you leave standing water on a water-based floor "varnish", you'll see what i mean). The word varnish appears on a lot of finishes now, but there's nothing on the market like a "varnish" that was available 45 years ago. (I don't mean it was "great" by saying there's nothing like it, just that EPA and probably lack of true turpentine has gutted what varnish is now. The current solvent varnishes may still be a decent option, but they take a long time to cure).