Thread: What is Grit in Japanese Natural Stones, and How Important Is It.

There are some excellent close up photos of DMT & Atoma diamond plates on the Jende Industries Blog, a wealth of information.

DMT vs. Atoma Diamond Plates For the Edge Pro – A Microscopic Comparison « Jende Industries Blog

My normal formula for honing razors when I test a stone is to create a fresh bevel with 45degree scratches from a 5k Suehiro stone, and to then proceed to remove those 5k scratches with straight on slightly angled scratches made with the stone being tested. I always do this testing with a slurry made from the base stone using a diamond plate. This way the whole process is done 100% with the grit of the base stone being tested. The addition of grit from a Aichi or tomonagura would give me a false +/- result. I always sharpen with a slurry made with a DN (diamond nagura), it is quick, easy, foolproof and does not in itself interject rogue grit. Diamond plates are more popular in Japan than they are here, if you go to the shows everyone uses diamond plates. Atoma is a very popular brand and they can be refurbished by yourself by ordering a new layer of the nickel sheet that has the diamonds imbedded. This is self adheasive so the milled aluminum plate does not need to be discarded.

Here are some photos taken with an SEM microscope for a fellow I met in Japan, his name is Lovic and his blogs are very interesting.

鋸-鉋-鑿　（Nokogiri-Kanna-Nomi）: June 2008

No one ever did respond to my offer to come over and use my shop. I finally ended up with a method of using awasedo slurry dust on a plate made of "plate glass" and found that the japanese grit particles began to break up immediately and get smaller. The blades became more and more polished. The grit particles eventually just turned into dust and were too small to continue honing or refining the blade. And in fact I could never get the kiita slurry to polish the blade like the Shapton 30k did. Funny how a blade less shiny can shave just as well and even more comfortable with less razor burn. Alx