Thread: Japanese naturals - Finishing question

Originally Posted by Brighty83

Thanks Oz,

I have heard its not good for synthetics so I wont use it on my synthetics ( unless it a barbers hone ). It does make sense that synthetic hones could be damaged by soaps as they are held together by resins and\or glues etc, natural stone are held together by stone itself thus should be less of a risk with corrosive agents.

The binder in the naturals may not like soap either. I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't test it on my Oozuku--that's what those $50 stones from our favorite eBay vendor are for!



It sounds like they were trying to achieve the same results if they used to use sodium carbonate, I would have thought i basic lather soap would be less corrosive then sodium carbonate, since sodium carbonate is a salt.



Isn't the whole "dont get your jnats too wet" to do with the stone cracking not dissolving? I though it was to do with the natural lines through the stone and expansion with the water causing it to crack, i know max has soaked jnats with no issue but i'm guessing they don't have any line or faults in the stone.

I think cracking has to do w/ drying out in the sun or letting water in the stone freeze, & soaking is supposed to lead to dissolving in the softer stones. The stones Max has soaked IIRC have been the super hard ones. Those are dense enough to take it.

Another reason for going easy on the water has to do w/ honing itself--some stones do not give their best results when you use too much--mine wipes away the edge if I use too much water or slurry. It chatters & skips & the edge is back to sub-4k territory in a hurry whereas very little water/slurry makes Shavette-killer edges!