Thread: Nakayama Asagi stone

Hello gents. Ive been having some very good and very bad shaves off this stone.(jns stone, nakayama asagi lv5+) Its lapped, I have an asano set of naguras. botan tenjou and mejiro. I also have a tomo. Now whats been working is a bevel set, b, t and m progression. And tomo light slurries, no heavy sets, lots of circles with pressure to break it down. I dilute when the slurry turn grayish. Continue a bit and wash off, wash the blade off and next progression. I cant get this to finish on water only. As soon as it starts, the edge somehow gets killed. Im reaching for straws as I am not satisfied with what has worked so far. I get much better shaves (best edge I ever got IMO) off my shuobodani 100 stone also from jns. Same naguras, etc. But i think this stone has more potential. So what should I do at this point. When I try to extend the session to try something over like refreshing the slurry with the naguras or extending the time spent, I get a dud edge. I mean it shaves, plenty sharp but not smooth. 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. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Stop diluting... Let the slurries go to a damp state almost dry.. and get super light on the strokes.. You will actually have too anyway or the blade will get sticky..

The rinse the stone and move to the next Nagura and repeat..

Now you could try a finish like this with just the slurry from the stone and see what happens, that is how I finish on mine, but some stones work better with the Nagura Progression of slurry..

Im thinking maybe less is more. Ive gotten my best shave after the progression and dmt slurry from the stone. But my shuobodani gave me a killer edge 3rd hone in, this ones got me scratchin my head for a month! I will just be patient and do as you suggested.

Make slurry and work it till it gets almost dry, then add some water and work it more. After all that raise more slurry and repeat, then strop and test.

The fact that you have success with some razors and not with others means you need more work on those that did not work out well, or they were not ready to go to the Nakayama.
My Jnats all make great edge if the razor is prepared correctly and I did enough on the stone.

My latest blade was honed on a chosera 1k 5k. Bevel was 100% set. And then botan tenjou mejiro and tomo. I can go to chosera 10 or naniwa 12k if you suggest. And progress from there.

Originally Posted by bill3152

My latest blade was honed on a chosera 1k 5k. Bevel was 100% set. And then botan tenjou mejiro and tomo. I can go to chosera 10 or naniwa 12k if you suggest. And progress from there.

Unfortunately is hard to judge how ready the razor is without actually seeing the razor. Try going to 10k synthetic then use only koma or mejiro slurry on the Jnat. Work the slurry till almost dry then add water work it more, then reaise new slurry on top of the old one and work it well.
I am curious what the edge looks like when you are done with the synthetics though.

Shave ready edge after 20k suehiro. Im not sure the image is postable here. 400x.

Hard to tell from the pics. The second one looks like the edge is not there yet. That white line there at the edge should not be present at all. If you can get it a bit more in focus and may be decrease the light intensity from the source the pic will be more clear.
Can you also post a pic after the Jnat?

I will work on this more as you are giving well accepted advice. Obviously you know much much more about these stones than I do. I will work the edge to 10k, then work the naguras almost dry as you have said.

Todays hone. sharp but not smooth 400x. Scratchy bevels are what I normally see even on well shaving razors with naturals. I just use them to look for well defined bevels. You may be able to see more.