Naniwa Super Stone questions...
Hey Gents!
Long time no see. :)
Kind of a long story, but the past couple years have been... trying, to say the least. I sold my complete set of Shapton on Glass stones, a bunch of razors, a bunch of guns, and other collectibles due to extended time off work from medical problems. But that's all behind me now, things are going great.
So for the past year or so, I've made do with a couple Coticules, and a four sided pasted paddle strop. I've had pretty good success at keeping my daily shavers acceptably sharp, but now I'm back where I was a few years ago...restoring some old razors that I've had for years now.
So I need new stones. I did like my Shaptons, but they never seemed to be very fast cutters. Fast stones are a necessity for me, as I have shaky hands, and I'm a two-handed honer that uses slow strokes. As you can imagine, without fast cutting stones, it takes me forever to take a completely dull blade to smooth shaver.
I've had great success taking dull razors to smooth shavers using the coticules, but both of my coties are pretty slow cutters, even with a heavy slurry (well, that's not entirely true.. one is fast *for a cotie*, but that's still not very fast for me since I'm so slow). The results are good, but getting there is a long, arduous process.
If you were on a limited budget, would you go with the Naniwa Super Stones? I just added up the cost of a 1K through 12k set and lapping stone (my DMT's are MIA due to a recent move), and it comes out just a bit over 300 bucks. Sheesh, I paid more than that just for my 32k Shapton! This seems like a great deal, but... they need to be fast cutters.
Are the Super Stones some of the fastest cutters around, or can you guys recommend an alternative set for a slow honer like me?
Also, I'm thinking about selling my coties. Back when I bought them, the price of coties was going through the roof. Are they still spendy, or has the price come down a ways?