Thread: Naniwa warp

Originally Posted by cotdt

What about that fine sharpening-taste, as natural stone gives?

I can hardly look at it, let alone taste it.

You are NOT supposed to soak these stones.

Says so right on the package. Soaking them will ruin them.
**EDIT** OK, so I THOUGHT it said so on the package...but I just checked mine and it said nothing.

Weird.

But I could have SWORN someone told me not to soak them in water...

My Naniwa Choseras had a stamp on the side of the stone that warns against soaking for more than 40 minutes. So the hour or so was probably too much. Nonetheless the hones need about 15~20 minutes prior to use anyways.

There is a warning on Shaptons (pros, I believe) not to soak them.
The problem with soaking Shaptons was that the surface of the binder
will get muddy and unusable (that´s what it said)

Naniwas can be soaked, I believe.
If not, there would have been way more problems with the naniwas
being soaked, that come with a stand!

I think, maybe there is just something wrong with your 3k/8k?
IDK, if anybody else encountered such problems (I don´t soak, so I can´t tell)

I have the Naniwa 3k/8k combination stone. When I use this stone it gets soaked but I'm too impatient to wait any more than about five minutes before I want to start honing. However when I'm using other grit stones the Naniwa sits in a bucket of water. This doesn't seem to have caused my Naniwa any problems. I'm thinking maybe you were just unlucky enough to get the one defective stone.

Originally Posted by JimR

But I could have SWORN someone told me not to soak them in water...

Here is what a friend of mine who lives in Japan found out for me by calling the companies directly this past August;

" The very nice lady at Shapton told me that the DGLP is fine for use with the Pros, and that the best way to do it is to use lots of running water, rather than spraying or soaking. It washes away the slurry and keeps it from building up too much.

I tried to ask about the 12K thing being for Stainless, and she tried to explain but my Japanese just isn't good enough. Something about being harder, but I don't know just WHAT is harder. Sorry about that.

The Naniwa guy said that it isn't necessary to soak the super stones, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt, either. Like Shapton, lots of water will help wash away the slurry.

The Naniwa stones are all the same material, and they don't differentiate for stainless/carbon etc. like Shapton, so they don't seem to have a set recommended system for sharpening."

Jimmy, what an amazing friend you have! So, I guess I was wrong about the Naniwas...

She said that the Naniwa 12k is bad for stainless? I use it all the time for my S90V, VG-10, ZDP-189 knives and it worked great!

Originally Posted by cotdt

She said that the Naniwa 12k is bad for stainless? I use it all the time for my S90V, VG-10, ZDP-189 knives and it worked great!

If you're referring to what the lady told my friend in the post above .... it was about the Shapton Pro. The Shapton USA faq mentions that the 12k is for stainless and my friend wanted to know how it differed from the other hones. There was no mention of the Naniwa 12k and stainless steel in that conversation.