Thread: Natural stones grit numbers why?

Natural hones can vary hone to hone so even saying one works similar to a 12K Naniwa may only be true for that one hone. Another natural of the same variety may well perform differently.

Bob

I see well-known sellers of Arkansas stones selling the exact the same stones, Translucent and surgical hard black and one seller claims to be between 8K-10K and the other claims to between 4K-6K the ratings are miles apart, and another thing no two stones usually work the same, I always advise anyone thinking of taking the plunge to go the Naniwa route every time, I'm 100% convinced if the old Babers back in the Day got their hands on a Naniwa 12K or an SG 20 they would have thrown their Coticules and Escher's in the bin.

Synthetic hones are made my man.

Man is part of nature.

Therefore synthetic hones are natural.



Even man made hones with the same grit rating by different men/companies arguably perform differently. They are much more consistent than a volcano erupting or a storm up river washing out certain sediments out to the bottom of an ocean.

For me a good description would be is that I use a certain natural to remove the scratch pattern from 8K Norton for example.

I got a very interesting tour of the Dans whetstone facility.

They don't grade a stone by color but by density. They never mentioned a grit rating to me.

Better yet is when they compare the Striations on a Razor or Knife bevel after honing, if you aren't using Blocks of Matched Steel with exactlng pressure the comparison is a Joke at best..



You can't even compare the scratch patterns on 10 different 1k Synthetics,,, hell a Naniwa Pro 1k Compared to a SS 1k compared to a Traditional 1k don't even match and they are from the same company..


Sometimes you just gotta call BS !!!!

I am not even going to go into the sources of these new "Wonder Rocks" and the less than honest names

It’s fairly common in Europe, the French forums at least routinely assign grit ratings to naturals. I don’t really have a problem with it, but that doesn’t mean that I believe the numbers in any specific instance either.

Can you assign a grit rating to a natural? A specific one sure. If you’re a competent honer and can’t figure out which stone in a synth progression that your natural would replace ...

I agree that you can’t assign grit ratings to classes or types of naturals, like assigning a grit rating to Thuringians, coticlues, or jnats in general. But if you ask me what synthetic one of my jnats is closest to in shaving quality, or what synth it can replace in a progression, I can probably tell you with reasonable accuracy.

An good (I mean bad, lol) example is koma nagura. Commonly reported to be 20k by various historic Japanese sources, I’ve never really found one that I believe was even close to a 20k synth. 8-10k synth equivalent in a shaving edge would be more like it.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Better yet is when they compare the Striations on a Razor or Knife bevel after honing, if you aren't using Blocks of Matched Steel with exactlng pressure the comparison is a Joke at best..



You can't even compare the scratch patterns on 10 different 1k Synthetics,,, hell a Naniwa Pro 1k Compared to a SS 1k compared to a Traditional 1k don't even match and they are from the same company..


Sometimes you just gotta call BS !!!!

I am not even going to go into the sources of these new "Wonder Rocks" and the less than honest names

And there is no word so common on eBay as ‘rare’!

The hobby is loaded with fluff! "This brush is the bestest!" And soap and razor and adding 1/1000th of a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil will give you the best shave eva! The gold wash and scales make the razor shave wonderfully! Etc etc etc. Lol.

Yup ! It's all just marketing.

BS for short

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

I'm 100% convinced if the old Babers back in the Day got their hands on a Naniwa 12K or an SG 20 they would have thrown their Coticules and Escher's in the bin.

Yes but they wouldn't have got their 'Zen'.