Thread: 12K Stone Thoughts

Boy am I late to this party. Lot of interesting stuff, good advice and varying opinions but all worthy. I don't have a 12K naniwa so I have no knowledge of comparison for it. My 12K Sharpton is a pretty smooth stone but you have to be careful about soaking that very much or it will craze (also it is helpful to learn to speak Japanese). Mine started to craze a little but fortunately the fissures don't really affect it. I found that a good hard ark takes the bite out of the 12k pretty well but then I don't really use it much these days. I haven't used it much since I ventured into arks. In fact I haven't used much of anything since I've ventured into arks. My water stones always dried on the edge and spent most of their time on the edge of the tub drying out thoroughly so they never went back in their boxes until I got the ark jones. I have just recuperated enough from my hand injury to start honing again so I pulled them back out just because I don't quite have enough dexterity to stay with the amount of laps needed for arks. I haven't ventured into jnats yet. My venture into arks cost me enough so far and quite frankly I got a little scared of poverty looking at jnats knowing the kind of bottomless pit you can fall into with any kind of natural stones.
I would really encourage you to learn to palm your stones, regardless of what they are. It makes you learn how to keep the stone steady and avoids putting too much pressure on the toe. Even though you think you're not leaning on the toe with your finger you still are. I look back now at razors from my collection that I haven't used for a long time and I can see them starting a frown from leaning my fingers on top of the bevel. It makes me sad to think about it. Looking back is quite a lesson though. Someone mentioned narrow stones which I have found I really like, especially if you have an uneven bevel or a warp. I have a Pike translucent slip stone which is wedge-shaped and both the fat and the narrow end are rounded. I use the wider heel of the stone to finish with sometimes because it hones such a narrow swath of the edge.It's a way to avoid all of the rocking or corner honing or stacking tape yada yada yada.