Thread: Cracked My Naniwa

From one who makes his living with heat exchangers, extreme temp changes can create quite a bit of damage to many pieces of equipment such as water jackets, engine blocks, freshly laid masonry and heat treated refractory products.

Avoid temp changes for your stones by storing them at ambient room temp and also maintain your water at the same temp. I'll bet you would rather jump into a swimming pool of 90 degree water than you would want to jump into a pool of 30 degree water. What a shock that would be to a 98.6 guy like you....

If you're not sure whether a stone should be soaked or not, pour some water on its surface. If the water is immediately absorbed by the stone, it probably needs to be soaked. If the water remains on the surface of the stone without being absorbed, soaking may not be necessary.

My advice is, keep buying hones until the cows come home..........

Originally Posted by mrsell63

My advice is, keep buying hones until the cows come home..........

That really doesn't give me much time... Some of the city dwellers may have lots of hone purchasing time, but here the cows come home twice a day.

Well then sir, I suggest you milk them there cows twice a day....

I came down from the mountain and sure as shootin', I wished I'da stayed up there.......... Seymour

Naniwa Superstones are resonoid and should not be soaked. I'll admit that a small amount of time (like 1-2 min) in water does make them feel and work better but it's still not what the maker wants you to do and they warn against it.

Naniwa Chosera are sintered stones which need a short soak of about 20-30 min, just enough to allow the surface to absorb enough water that it will expel it as lubrication when pressure is applied. Since pressure isn't used while honing razors a longer soak time may be required to soften the surface a bit. It's a fine line between just enough and too much though, some of the Choseras turn to mush with too long a soak.

I think in the case of the original poster's cracked stone I would attribute it to temperature differences between stone and water although that's obviously just a guess.

Dave

Originally Posted by DaveMartell

Naniwa Superstones are resonoid and should not be soaked. I'll admit that a small amount of time (like 1-2 min) in water does make them feel and work better but it's still not what the maker wants you to do and they warn against it.

Naniwa Chosera are sintered stones which need a short soak of about 20-30 min, just enough to allow the surface to absorb enough water that it will expel it as lubrication when pressure is applied. Since pressure isn't used while honing razors a longer soak time may be required to soften the surface a bit. It's a fine line between just enough and too much though, some of the Choseras turn to mush with too long a soak.

I think in the case of the original poster's cracked stone I would attribute it to temperature differences between stone and water although that's obviously just a guess.

Dave

Good Points, what i do is while I am setting up I will put it under the faucet and let the water trickle on it till I am ready.