Thread: Shuobudani Softer Than Cnat?

Not quite sure if this should be in the Hone section or the honing. Hopefully it will be moved if need be. This isn't really a problem just not what I was expecting. I got a jnat awhile ago and decided to touch up a few of my razors on it and it left a wonderful edge. Suppose I should say it is a Shuobudani stone. Anyway I decided to use it as my finisher and after touching up my razors in my rotation and finishing a few others all was fine. I honed up some more and went to finish them and the razors turned out pretty bad. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Well after some experimenting decided to relap the jnat and noticed that it was pretty dished out. I try to rub the nagura stone over the entire surface to minimalize the dishing on any stone. Now this is what I didn't expect cause I was under the impression that it would be harder than my cnat, but it seems far softer if it dished out that quick. The tomonagura is softer than the Shuobudani "atleast it seems to be". I didn't have to put any pressure on the nagura stone to build a slurry. Don't get me wrong the stone is a wonderful finisher just wasn't expecting to have to lap it as often. I was wondering if anyone else with a Shuobudani stone find it on the softer side or is mine just a softer version. Was also wondering if using the jnat nagura on the cnat since it is harder would make it a finer finisher. Regardless I find it a great finisher and will continue to use it. I still have alot of experimenting to do with the jnat needless to say.

Ok I might have been mistaken. Messing around with the nagura stone and noticed that when rubbing it against a dmt card the slurry produced is a different color than when rubbed on the stone so it is looking like the nagura stone is actually harder than the Shuobudani stone. Seems to be harder than the cnat also. That is probably what caused the dishing. Think I am going to try just building a slurry on the dmt card and rinsing it on the hone and see what that does. Always fun to mess around with hones.

Nice to hear you found that out, but there's a but. Maxim at JapaneseNaturalStones writes that diamond raised slurry is not quite as fine as nagura raised slurry. I wouldn't know, but it sounds reasonable.

Keep us posted!

I have a shuobodani and it is softer than my other 3 jnats. I would say I would trust Maksims recommendation. I got a 2nd tomo as the first one was too hard for the shuobodani. I like the naguras slurry better than the dmt slurry. My cnat is harder than my shuobodani. Keep playing around with it and dont do what isnt working. See advanced honing posts as there is a wealth of info there.

Nagura like all other Jnats vary in hardness, to avoid your problem you have to find soft nagura. The problem is it takes trial and error to find the correct nagura for your stone. I would say if you can find a really soft one, Maksim would be able to find you one I think, you will be fine.