Thread: J-Nat club

Hey, can anyone explane what I have? Thanks!

I finally got a jnat so I can be apart of a club hahah here it is I have not actually held it yet I can't wait to try it out if you guys wanna give any ways to work this stone I'd appreciate it all I have been doing is reading. It is a Narutaki Kan Asagi and the measurements are 5.5-6" x 3". *

Picked up this Shoubudani Mizu Asagi from JNS a few weeks back.

A green Aoto- very hard stone that produces very little slurry on its own.



In group with my red and blue Aoto, red being the softest blue the hardest of the three.

I completely forgot this stone probably belongs here as well. The Tsushima Nagura is something that gets overlooked frequently.
The Tsushima is one of the medium grit stones that fills in the gap between coarse bevel setting (like 1k, or Binsui/Ikarashi etc.) and finishing (like Ohira, Nakayama, Ozuku...)
and it is quite reasonably priced at the moment. The Tsushima does not have difficulties with impurities or with the creation of microchips. Give it a try!

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Originally Posted by Lesslemming

How about my gigantic Tsushima Nagura?
The stone is something like 200x80mm and almost 2.5 Kilogram.

The Tsushima Nagura is a medium fine stone that starts at about 2.000 and finishes at 4-6.000.
I use this stone as intermediate polisher for my kitchen knives. I start with a 500 and work my way up to a 3.000. All synthetic.
Then I start to work with this Tsushima Nagura. It will even out the scratch pattern and give a nice crisp contrast between soft jigane and hard hagane.
Afterwards I finish on an Ohira with a small Uchigomori Ohira Nagura or an extremely fine Ozuku slurried with either another Ozuku or with a soft Nakayama.
Depending on what I want to achieve I even use Uchigomori Finger stones.

I present, my new collection of japanese natural stones.
I sold, rebought and resold a lot of stones lately. Thus my collection has changed dramatically.
I "lost" almost all my high end J-Nat finishers and wound up with only my Naniwa Superstone 10k and Shapton 30k as my favourite finishers.
But recently I found my love for J-Nats again. But hardly do use them with my straights but rather with my kitchen knives. Hence my collection is more
oriented on giving the best performance than merely finishing at the finest possible. And let me tell you, it is not the hardness and slowness of a stone that makes it a good finisher.
If I told you you could have a lv 5+ Ohzuku or a lv 3 Ohzuku, what would you choose?








In this picture you can see my current J-Nat setup consisting of

1. Huge Tsushima Nagura medium fineness
2. Uknown Asagi in the range of approx. 6k level
3. Ohira Asagi pre polisher or finisher
4. Ozuku Asagi with a green tint lvl 3 (according to maxims rating system)
5. Mejiro Nagura
6. Very rare Ohira Uchigomori Nagura, my precious
7. Nice and hard Ozuku Kiita Nagura

First let me introduce to you the Tsushima Nagura.
I already told you about it in my last post.
I think it is a highly underrated stone that serves a very special purpose in my rotation.
It is almost guaranteed microchip and inclusion free (as long as you keep in mind to buy from a reliable source only)
and very easy to use. I use it as a first step into my J-Nat rotation, right after a 1k or even better a 3k synthetic stone.
This is a crucial step for kitchen knives if you like to achieve a nice kasumi finish.

I shall skip the uknown Asagi with only a hint of information. It is hard and smooth. It will finish at around 6k and is a nice addition to my collection.
It will finish kitchen knives with a very sharp edge but usually I skip it in favour of my Ohira Asagi. I shall skip this one too,
as it is merely a fill-in for an Ohira yet to come. The Ohira is an incredibly underrated stone, as well. This may be justified for razors, as these Ohira usually are a little less fine
and a little less hard than Nakayama and Ozuku, but the Ohira has very important features that are sought after, especially with kitchen knives.
The most sought after stone that I know of is the Uchigomori-Do. The Uchigomori comes from the Ohira mine, so it is a very special Ohira.
The Uchigomori-Do is one of the most important stones in sword polishing, as it will define the outcome of a sword and the distinction between hardened steel, and soft steel (i.e. the hamon).
This stone has been sought after and unreasonably priced for decades among sword polishers (togishi).
The Uchigomori is defined by its extreme softness that does not scratch the hard Tamahagane and ruin the polish but bring out the contrast and little imperfections that give steel a soul.

You can still get small pieces of uchigomori as finger stones but hardly will you see a real brick. And by the way, the true Uchigomori will be a relatively coarse specimen of an Ohira,
that usually finishes at a 4-6k level if used as a sharpening stone. So usually these are not what razor sharpeners want. But as a kitchen knive enthusiast you will cherish the quality of the kasumi polish.

That being said, there are still other types of Ohira much more readily available but increasingly expensive. Sometimes Ohiras can be capable of finishing a razor just fine.
Although there are always exceptions, Ohiras tend to be a little more soft than Nakayama and Ozuku. But that usually makes them quicker, too!
So for me the Ohira comes right after the Tsushima and will literally give razor sharp edges. Lesson learnt: Harder does not mean better, it means different.

With these words I want to introduce to you something special.
A very soft Ozuku Asagi ~200x70mm



As you can see this specimen has a little greenish tint and the cloudy texture that some of these Ozuku come with.
To the touch this is an amazingly fine stone. But the realy valuable properties will show when it is used, not touched.
This Ozuku is incredibly soft for being one of the hardest stone class thereis. Mind you it is still hard, but not for an Ozuku.
I have tried many other ozukus among them a crazy hard Ozuku lv 5++.
This Ozuku is much much quicker than its brothers and will produce swarf (not mud) on big blades instantly.
It does not scratch the steel at all and feels just smooth and creamy when sharpened on.
Some (or even a lot) of Ozukus can feel scratchy and diminish a great mirror polish to some extend.
Some will even produce microchips (or just plain chips) on big blades if you are not carefull and skilled.
But this quality makes this stone almost fololproof to use but the most incredible part is it finishes at the highest possible.
Hair test all the way baby. It shaves like a dream. It tamed my bitchy Böker Damascus blade which is now shaving like it should.

Lesson learnt: Hardness is not everything. Extremely hard stones have their rightful place in our rotation.
But softer stones tend to be quicker and do not necessarily finish lower than their hard companions but are much more easy to use.
This Ozuku is probably the most versatile tool in my box. And again, who is to blame? Maxim of course. Thank you for your great services, I shall buy from you again, soon

I've got a 1,6 Kg Uchigomori that's being in the process of becoming finger stones on my kitchen floor right now.

I have a decent sized Uchigumori stone that I use as a final polisher for my razors and it works fantastic!

I got my hands on some of the Uchigomori-Fingerstones that Maksim sold. I processed them into small chips.
Heres a tip: While you are in the process of making finger stones, save all the tiny chips and chunks that are too small to become fingerstones.
Save the dust, too. Put it in a mortar and grind it for a couple of minutes. This way Uchigo, which is nothing else but fine ground Uchigomori, is made.
You can use your homemade Uchigo to maintain your kitchen knives. It will remedy patina and little discolorations without ruining the kasumi finish.
Uchigo is used as cleaning agent for swords since forever. You can also use it as final step after the finger stones. Put some of the powder on a wool pad or something soft
and do some long strokes on the wet blade. If you haven't done it before I am sure you will like it!
The first of my picture shows two vials with some homemade Uchigo. One is made from Maksims Uchigomori, the other from some uknown Hazyua (probably Uchigomori as well, who knows)

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

I got my hands on some of the Uchigomori-Fingerstones that Maksim sold. I processed them into small chips.
Heres a tip: While you are in the process of making finger stones, save all the tiny chips and chunks that are too small to become fingerstones.
Save the dust, too. Put it in a mortar and grind it for a couple of minutes. This way Uchigo, which is nothing else but fine ground Uchigomori, is made.
You can use your homemade Uchigo to maintain your kitchen knives. It will remedy patina and little discolorations without ruining the kasumi finish.
Uchigo is used as cleaning agent for swords since forever. You can also use it as final step after the finger stones. Put some of the powder on a wool pad or something soft
and do some long strokes on the wet blade. If you haven't done it before I am sure you will like it!
The first of my picture shows two vials with some homemade Uchigo. One is made from Maksims Uchigomori, the other from some uknown Hazyua (probably Uchigomori as well, who knows)

I do that all the time got lots of small containers with powdered jnat for mixing Uchigo or the name I use Nugui powder.
In some I add iron oxide black or red, crox, some with water some with oil... endless combinations of fun!