Thread: Okudo Karasu

I would go with a tomo nagura but that is becourse it's traditional.
Diamond plates work fine to but will usually give you a coarser slurry.
The DMT 1200 will be fine for making a little slurry, what it won't like is heavy work like flatten your stone.
The diamonds are so small that the slurry will start to eat the substrate holding them to the plate.
It won't really scratch your stone at all and as soon you start to hone on it the surface will be even finer.

A good tomo nagura will give you a finer slurry to start with, some times good for a quick touch up or to end the nagura progression.
The DMT won't make it as fine but it will break down as you hone.

A little sodium carbonate in the water will make it more slippery and give you some rust protection while honing, carbon steel can rust fast!

How come you got a karasu?

Thank you very much for your help. I got the stone on Ebay, from 330 Mate, I know is a gamble with this seller, but I was thinking at 70$ can't go wrong. I just want to make the stone as rectangle as posible. It is 7x 2 1/2, almost ideal for razors.Is Karasu a good stone?

I saw that Thuringian you won on Ebay the other day too...How's that working out for you? It looked like a nice stone, you'll probably enjoy the edges off the Thruy.

Jnat's can be finiky. Atoma is good in lieu of Tomo Nagura.

I guess HAD has kicked in.....

HAD and RAD are terrible disease, I get both.

How many passes you do on a Jnat. I know is not an easy answer, but on a shave ready 12K I go 50 laps on water on my Hohenzollern , just to get where I like the edge.

Originally Posted by livio

How many passes you do on a Jnat. I know is not an easy answer, but on a shave ready 12K I go 50 laps on water on my Hohenzollern , just to get where I like the edge.

Well, how long is a string?
I never count strokes so I don't know.
It depends on so much, the stone, the steel, your style of honing and how you want the edge.
Get some razors and practice, it takes some time to learn a new jnat.
Try different ways to hone, the Japanese way is with more weight on the hone than the feather light strokes some do on the Eschers.

Thank you, I will hone couple razors, and let you know.

The Karasu is more of a collectors thing, if it's good or not only you can tell.
I've tried a few of 330 mates stones now and can't find anything wrong with them, would like to try one of the stones that has been described as crap and see.

I've found the same as Jimbo said about some jnats can give you an edge that won't be HHT but strop it and see, the shave is the only certain test.

You can do some tests on the stone, like use water only and an old blade to see if the stone will scratch or self slurry.

When it comes to tomo nagura I and others have found that exactly the same stone is not always good to use.
The only way to know what works is trial and error.

Good luck!