Thread: Nakayama Asagi stone

I am very happy with my edges off my stones. I just wanted to be with a stone that has the highest potential and I see that is what I have now.

Originally Posted by bill3152

One other question for you Oz. Is there a specific type of stone that is more capable than a nakayama asagi as a hard finisher? Now I know they are all different but they share similar enough characteristics to be grouped together. Im talking about razor hones as I know there are chisel and knife stones as well. My stone is a Nakayama Mizu Asagi 5+ from JNS so I take Maksims word for it as he is very reputable. And I know they have to be worked to realize their potential. I worked on that one for over a month.

Bill, an 8k Norton in Glenn or Lynn's hands may be more "capable" than the best Jnat in someone else's hands.

You can't generally rate a stone's capability from the mine it came from but I think you'll find almost any hard finisher from Nakayama, Oozuku & Shobu-Dani mines will do the job in the right hands.
The process may be slightly different between various stones but the edges should all be within a similarly high standard providing it is a good stone.

Seems to me we are looking for the holy grail of hones again. You get best results by working with a good hone time and again. You really need to get to know your hone well to get the killer edge you want.

I have gotten excellent shave ready edges off the norton8, chosera10, naniwas 12, lapping film, suehiro gokumyo 20k, 2 out of 3 cotis(one is IMO a tool or knife stone), and all of my jnats. All of my naturals have been worked many different ways, slurry no slurry, dmt slurry water, mineral oil etc. Each new hone has brought me something. Ive tried many different pastes also, crox ,diamond paste, dia slurry, cbn etc and Ive tried them on different mediums, balsa,leather,hard felt, hanging and bench strop. So as I move through the buffet of hones, Ive realized I like all of them, but really like my jnats. So I can say I would never buy another coti, as the edge produced is certainly shave ready but not as sharp as a jnat.

Originally Posted by bill3152

... Ive been honing almost a year and have no issues setting bevels, I get great edges off my suehiro gokumyo 20k, my SRD coti and another I purchased somewhere else I have no issues with. As well as my nainiwa 12k. Great shaves, sharp and smooth. Ive honed about 300 blades so I know Im not a pro or close by any means. Im looking for that whisker squeegee. I also just got a kouzaki 4.5 and a ozuku asagi 5+from JNS but I want to try to settle this one up if I can. ...

I congratulate with you and I envy you your time and skills for getting such results in 1 year.
It took me some years to get 300 honed blades and I feel I only master (not perfectly) my 8ks and naniwa 12k. I'm still trying to understand my escher, coti and jnats. Recently I got a wonderful edge (nani 12k) on my TI and had the idea to give a try with my nakajama, the result was WOW. Then I was thinking that I was finally mastering that nakayama and decided to try with a nasty Le Grelot directly after nani 8k. Sadly I dulled the Le Grelot

I found my cotis to be very easy. Well 2 of them are great performers, another I have I believe was a knife stone(uneducated guess) as it doesn't deliver as well as the other 2. The scratch pattern on that one is noticeably more coarse than my others and the shave quality isn't there or at least I haven't found it yet. I like using both sides after a chosera 1k. The bbw side does a fine job of prefinishing before the yellow. Great shaves, just doesn't have the zip I get from my jnats. I will have to find an Escher, as I have never used one or shaved off one before.

Originally Posted by Sterm

I congratulate with you and I envy you your time and skills for getting such results in 1 year.
It took me some years to get 300 honed blades and I feel I only master (not perfectly) my 8ks and naniwa 12k. I'm still trying to understand my escher, coti and jnats. Recently I got a wonderful edge (nani 12k) on my TI and had the idea to give a try with my nakajama, the result was WOW. Then I was thinking that I was finally mastering that nakayama and decided to try with a nasty Le Grelot directly after nani 8k. Sadly I dulled the Le Grelot

have you tried after 12k? If it worked with one razor why not try the same process with another? Good Jnat are very fine, but if they also happen to be slow cutters then it will be hard to get an 8k edge further in any reasonable time.

Originally Posted by Kees

Seems to me we are looking for the holy grail of hones again. You get best results by working with a good hone time and again. You really need to get to know your hone well to get the killer edge you want.

I agree. I don't think it's so much, "The right stone in the right hands" as it is, Getting to know the stone, and learning it's capabilities. It just takes time.
Too many guys bounce around and buy stone after stone, and never really learn to use them.

Originally Posted by mainaman

have you tried after 12k? If it worked with one razor why not try the same process with another? Good Jnat are very fine, but if they also happen to be slow cutters then it will be hard to get an 8k edge further in any reasonable time.

That's what I'm going to try, but I was not expecting such a critical behavior from my nakayama and still find it hard to understand because after 8k the razor do was shave ready (shave test).

Originally Posted by Sterm

That's what I'm going to try, but I was not expecting such a critical behavior from my nakayama and still find it hard to understand because after 8k the razor do was shave ready (shave test).

In that case maybe you honed too much. ?