Thread: My New Narutaki Asagi from Alex

Some background: After experimenting w/ various submicron sprays for almost a year, I came to the conclusion that I greatly prefer the edge from a fine natural hone. I thought it was high time for another Jnat as a 5 year straight shaving anniversary/30th birthday/career-picking-up-speed present to myself.

After doing loads of research & having owned a few Jnats, I knew pretty well what I was looking for: ultra-fine, fast cutting (it's all too easy to dull an edge by being a bit careless when doing lots of circles), good feedback and not too hard (I hate that greasy, skipping feel you can get from a glazed stone surface).

I emailed Alex about stones in general & we started to talk. I eventually settled on a 5.75x3 Narutaki asagi (lvl 5 hardness; lvl 5+ in everything else such as fineness & speed). It was also very reasonably priced--quite a bit less than my previous stones, in fact. He even made a video of using that stone to hone a razor using the "Ax Method" & sent me that razor plus 1 more so I could compare the edges I was getting to the originals.

On Sat, the package arrived. The test shave on both razors was superb. Very effortless shave & very comfortable. I then started playing on my own razors. The results so far: I love this stone!





About the stone: med hard, super fine, & ultra fast. As in stupid fast. As in: can completely wipe out all scratches from a DMT 1200 (if you've ever used one of these, you know how deep the scratches are...) in about 40 short strokes w/ a light-med slurry made w/ a diamond plate!!! So fast on water, I can overhone in as little as 20 strokes (have to be careful on water & in fact I probably will only do 5 strokes on pure water after thinning the slurry out). When I don't go quite so overboard on the water strokes, a good hard razor is DE sharp or better, but infinitely more comfortable on the skin.

Alex included a tomonagura as well, which I think I'll use when a razor is close & just needs a little extra as I love the speed of this thing when used w/ a diamond plate for slurry. No need for expensive naguras on this baby!

In short, Alex was great to deal with, even to the extent of making a YouTube video to show me how he got his results on this stone & of course sold me an amazing stone. I highly recommend him if you're looking for a good razor Jnat!