Thread: what steels do japanese natural finishing stone sharpen?

One advantage that synthetic stones have over natural
stones is that they can cut practically all type of steels. Natural
stones can't do this. I think it has to do with the fact that the
abrasive in natural stones is considerably softer than aluminium
oxide or silicone carbide which are the usual abrasives in the
synthetics.

Now there are many type of japanese natural stones. I would
like to know which steels these stones(particurarly the finishing stones)
cut well and which they don't cut well. The steels I know are swedish
steel, high carbon steel, 01 steel, HSS steel, VG10, white steel and blue steel.

I'll give you an example. My good friend sharpens his knives on synthetic
stones. The steel is VG10. I asked if he would try it on my jnats. The result
was very poor. After reading a bit on VG10 steel I found out it contains very
high chromium which is very hard. So basically the naturals(perhaps mine) stones
won't cut cut many steels.

Need some education on this topic. Thanks.

Sharpman

The main difference between synthetics made from AlOx SiC diamond etc. VS naturals, is their speed. Both will cut steel. Its hardness and abrasive resistance is not high enough for rendering the naturals obsolete. All hones abrade all kinds of steel. And it's not just the kind of steel. It's also the heat treatment. The secret behind VG10 is its purity, and its vanadium content that reduces the size of the Chromium Carbide crystals, that are very big compared to the iron-carbon types or something like that, making it less fragile from the rest of stainless steels. This way you can harden it up to 62RC without the brittleness of the classic stainless steels. That's why it's hard...

Honing takes time. It's not just a matter of a few minutes, depending on what you re honing of course.

Many experienced people say that Japanese hones work better on Japan made steel, UK hones work better on UK made steel etc. I'm not sure I understand it, but I don't have a reason not to mention it.

Edit; for HSS steels, don't bother to sharpen them. It will be a waste of time. for a full ground razor, even the touch up will take forever...

J-nats can cut both stainless and carbon steels.
Swedish steel /white steel/blue steel/o1 are all carbon steels with variations of impurities content depending on what properties the steel is designed to have.
I have used Jnats on all but O1, and they work just fine.
I have sharpened VG-10 and a few other stainless on J-nats and also got great results. One thing to keep in mind is not all J-nats will cut all steels equally well.

The only generalisation you can make about Jnats is that, as with all naturals , they vary.

You may simply have slow cutting stones.