Thread: Diluting Slurry on Nakayama

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Hi David,
Your passion for the Nakayama contagious! Do you still use the 30k before you get to the Nakayama?
Mike

I'd be interested to hear his answer to this. I do it sometimes, but to reduce the amount of strokes on my Nakayama. I'm not sure if it helps or not

I've also figured out that all of you guys touting Chrom Ox weren't shooting a load of BS... that makes a nice, smooth edge.

You know, it's amazing how hard we work at getting better than great edges...

It's fun though

I have used the 30k before the Nakayama simply because I have it and had all the Shaptons out already. I've skipped the 30k and still used the Nakayama with exactly the same results, so if you're finishing on a Nakayama you really don't need anything higher than 16k or 8k. I go past 8k only because I have them and I find honing on the Nakayama with just water after it's been highly refined on the Shaptons to be like honing on glass. Veeeerrrrrrryyyy smooth.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

I have used the 30k before the Nakayama simply because I have it and had all the Shaptons out already. I've skipped the 30k and still used the Nakayama with exactly the same results, so if you're finishing on a Nakayama you really don't need anything higher than 16k or 8k. I go past 8k only because I have them and I find honing on the Nakayama with just water after it's been highly refined on the Shaptons to be like honing on glass. Veeeerrrrrrryyyy smooth.

I value your opinion very much Dave because you have squeezed the most out of both stones. Is it safe to say that you enjoy the results of the Nakayama more than the 30k when it comes down to the final shave?

Slurry is odd stuff. I think it is more than just making more abrasive available.

It is pretty clear when lapping or juicing that when the work becomes thick with slurry the pieces will really stick together, it affects the blade in the same manner.

With oil stones there is most often little tendency for the hone to release and slurry. Oil is used to suspend swarf(one of the reasons at least) keeping it from embedding and glazing the stone surface. Similarly the consistency of slurry helps to suspend the metallic particles so they can be washed away.

You must remember that Japanese "tools"- are usually laminates: hard and soft. The soft can really clog up a rock being easily cut it spoils blacky-black and greasey. With slurry the stone keeps clean and the mess is carried away. This is an effect that ultra-high grit synthetics cannot mimic.

Mono-steel of singular hardness is acting somewhat differently than the low carbon steel, or at times, nearly pure iron laminates.(which I have not seen on wakami.) With less to be floated we might guess less juice is needed....seems to be so.

Garnets are non friable so it does make sense that the coticules contain that root-grit that cannot be further divided. Thinking of particles and grits is not easy for me; even with pictures to aid the imagination. (they are so small) What are they? If a kyoto stone starts working at 28.8k and the reduced slurry finishes 52.642k...why did it stop reducing?...

Which is kinda wrong as we cannot just keeping using it. It's always changing.

While on top of the stone we are only touching part of unreleased particles. In slurry it's said the particles are fracturing/binder dissolving to create a finer and finer "root-particle?". Whatever form of paste is actully being wiped between the bevel(and edge) and the stone surface is hard to grasp exactly; and certainly more is washing over the top.

these impacts along the edge dimension are called slurry dulling. The finer the slurry -the less dulling should occur, I guess. But this is where you strike the balance between stone and steel. The composition of the paste though is more than its grit equilivent. Because really most of the work on the bevel(edge) is happening on the surface of the stone; we are not trying to surf through the foam riding on a cushion of water. At another level then what we have for nagura can be as much of its ability to stick these particles back to the stone; paste them under the edge as it passes over; as it is what element of grit equilivent it adds to the mix.

....that's all I can say about that