Thread: I declare this: Ozuku madness!

Originally Posted by PA23-250

My Oozuku came today!!!! Had to leave 5 min after the DHL guy showed up to go shoot a fireworks show, but had time to chamfer the tomonagura. Can't wait to start playing with it! Just for fun, has anyone gone straight from a Norton to one of these (mine's level 5+, so super hard & fine)? I was planning to use my coticule as a prepolisher first, but I want to try direct once just to see.

it will not hurt to try.
I like to use mejiro after 8-10k synthetic, before I use tomonagura.

If it is a fast-ish cutter you will certainly be able to go straight from the 8k Norton and not be sitting there for several hours. I mean, if you have enough time and patience you can go from a 1K stone to a 30K+ stone in one go - the metal gets abraded eventually.

But anyway, as mainaman said, it cannot hurt to try and in fact might be advisable to try as a way to determine the cutting speed of your new stone.

James.

here's mine jnat from a few months ago a shoubudani asagi kan.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

If it is a fast-ish cutter you will certainly be able to go straight from the 8k Norton and not be sitting there for several hours. I mean, if you have enough time and patience you can go from a 1K stone to a 30K+ stone in one go - the metal gets abraded eventually.

But anyway, as mainaman said, it cannot hurt to try and in fact might be advisable to try as a way to determine the cutting speed of your new stone.

James.

Status Update
Tried about 3 razors today straight off the Norton. The razor develops a good draw w/i 40 circles or so, but the slurry never really gets dark--as a test, I purposely stayed on slurry probably for close to 3 min w/ barely any graying (just starting) before diluting. I've been diluting like Maksim does in his video--probably 4 or 5 stages, then rubbing the stone off to remove residual slurry & going to water. Tried 50 strokes on water on a hard Randall Hall just to see what would happen. I also tried wiping the razor off, stropping it 5x on linen, & then going to water. Still haven't shave tested yet. After diluting & coming off slurry, I can still see a bit of haze on the bevel--seems like it starts to get progressively shinier on water. I probably could stand to use less water in general (feedback can be jittery on some razors), but I'm still in try-everything-to-see-how-it-behaves mode. Still need to lap it as it's definitely not flat (dreading that task!), but just from tomonagura use, the surface is nice & shiny, reflecting light well.

A group shot of my babies

Shave tested today, but made the mistake of using a bad shaving soap--lots of burn (from the soap) & killed the lather, even when I tried adding other things to it. Skin was temporarily really irritated, but pressed on anyway--got absolutely zero irritation from actual shaving (2 day beard which is the worst) & all primed for more testing tomorrow. With any other finish, I would have been too irritated to shave for @ least another day--the edges I'm getting so far from this stone seem to not affect my face at all! I find I'm spending literally over 2 hours/day on this rock! Still need to lap it, but w/ regular tomonagura use, it keeps developing more of a shine. Really beautiful surface! I think I'm beginning to see why people actually collect these things!

Following Alex's advice in an earlier post, I tried doing nothing but palm stropping after honing. Also tried about 25 dry strokes after water because I know So sometimes recommends them. I just wish my beard grew faster so I could do more testing!

Update

Got impatient (& too cheap to buy wet/dry paper), & started lapping w/ my trusty well worn D8C. Using Glen's method (figure 8s on top of the stone & rinsing slurry off as needed), it's going surprisingly well, w/ the aid of "Down Periscope". I can definitely see the areas that still need it--some on the side, so still at it. They appear distinctly darker than the rest of the stone. Oxidation or egg wash, maybe? When held to the side, the stone still reflects light reasonably well (my DMT is pretty old). I'm thinking of using a coticule slurry stone after this to smooth the surface, followed by the tomonagura (which is definitely softer than the hone, so I'm not sure how much polishing it would do). I'm kind of surprised: I was dreading lapping this thing, but it's going pretty well so far (30 min into it as of now). I'm also cheating w/ my credit card sized DMT-C to get the small low spots so I don't have to remove all that stone just to clean them off. Any further hard Jnat lapping/smoothing tips are always welcome!

I recently lapped my Ozuku (it was actually very flat). I used a not well worn DMT8C and a not well worn DMT8F.
Both of them have been used frequently for lapping but are still quite agressive. I took my time on the D8F to get rid of all the tiny scratches.
Afterwards I finished the surface with a couple of small hard stones and nagura. This took a lot of time but eventually the whole stone shines and reflects light perfectly.
You can try your Coticule rubbing stone or a small belgian blue after the D8C and work your way up to tomonagura

I have been using a BBW straight after my DMT8C and it works good for me! Makes my stones feel like glass

Started smoothing, but reflection is not perfect yet. My coticule slurry stone is a natural, so I'll try the BBW side next. Left the corners as they were as I don't even go that far. Got a little aggressive chamfering an edge & removed a thin flack from the very edge. Very tiny spot in a corner (pretty much on the corner) & the razor doesn't touch it at all . Should I be concerned @ all or not? At worst, I'd just have to do a lot of lapping, it seems.

I tested a partially restored wedge before & after lapping--much greater suction after & actually had removed metal from the razor after 20 x-strokes w/ water (wiped onto a paper towel), whereas before it would take over 50, so it's much faster now.

Originally Posted by PA23-250

Started smoothing, but reflection is not perfect yet. My coticule slurry stone is a natural, so I'll try the BBW side next.

BBW is a natural too, and coarser than the coticule side.

Got a little aggressive chamfering an edge & removed a thin flack from the very edge. Very tiny spot in a corner (pretty much on the corner) & the razor doesn't touch it at all . Should I be concerned @ all or not?

I think you are fine