Thread: Jnat Finishing Questions

Guess I should start with saying that I get great edges from my Jnat. I am a beginner to Jnats and was just thinking that I am doing more than is necessary. I read alot of posts and watched videos and thats when I figured I would get a Jnat to try. This is what I do. After norton 8k I add couple drops of water to stone and work light slurry. I work the slurry till stone is about dry (about 20 laps)then I dunk razor in water which adds a couple drops to the stone and I do 10 laps and dunk and repeat till about clear water. Usually takes about 4-6 steps of that to get to clear water so about 40-60 laps plus the initial 20 laps. The stone is about 6"x2" if it matters. I've finished about 20 razors so far doing this. My question is is that too much? Don't get me wrong the shaves after that are fantastic, but just wondering if I am doing more than is necessary. I read alot of posts about doing 10 or so laps on just water, but that seems after Nani12k or higher grit. Any opinions are appreciated.

Not sure if you have seen this statement from me in the past

"Synthetic Hones are an exact science, Natural stones are a Romance, be sure you want start that love affair"

With the Naniwa as you mention we all know about where the edge is it coming off the previous Naniwa, we know the exact composition and grit of the hone, and how it reacts to many razors, we even know the size so we can pretty confidently say it should only take 10-20 laps and yer done.. If you need much more we even know that something isn't quite clicking on the lower hones ..

But when we talk about your J-nat we don't really know anything at all, even if you tell us everything about the stone right down to what spot in the mine it came from we can only speculate about it's properties.. We don't actually "Know" unless we are sitting across a table having a beer and honing razors together..

So we can only tell you what we do on our on J-nats, which could be exactly opposite of what will work on yours This is where the romance comes into play, you have to spend time with your "Gal" take her out to Dinner go Dancing and figure out how to make her smile...

Sounds to me like you are on the right track, except the dilution to clear water, many J-nats have friable slurry, in fact that is what you want from them, the slurry needs to break down and become more and more fine.. So I would leave out the dilution and see what happens, let the slurry break down as you hone, some of them actually like to finish on almost dry or dry. but this are just hints to try with your stone, you have to figure it out...

Is it too much? Impossible to say but it's nothing compared to my Jnat procedure. I like to go through three naguras, the last being a tomo that I work until it breaks down. THEN I slowly dilute to water to get the final polish. What little I know about using Jnats I learned from Stefan. But I don't argue with the results. The nagura progression leaves the bevel very polished and really takes the scratches from the previous grits out of the picture. The result is a very comfortable edge. If you are getting good results I wouldn't worry about it. It's hard enough getting a good result. If it's working stick with it and only try to improve.

J, I have just south of 300 edges finished on the single jnat I've used (N-Asagi). I think I still don't know its behavior that well. Glen gave you really good stuff about synth vs natural. That's a short way of saying something that's really pretty big. I've tried working the daylights out of slurry - usually with good result. I've also used for a few (10) strokes on clear water after a Gokumyo 20k w/ good results. My stone seems to be a slow cutter, but wonderful edges. For info on how to explore further or maybe jnat-specific info, I hope that Onimaru weighs in. He has had unusually good fortune in having access to good jnats and contact w/ at least a 2nd generation expert on the stones. For my face/skin/preferences, I like the feel of a good jnat better than any natural. Other skin/preferences lean towards other good stones. 'Hope you get more input as good as Glen's.

The answer to your question is EXPERIMENT
Reduce the number of laps, or even change the procedure and see what happens.
This is the way to figure out the limits of your stone.
Another direction to test what you have is to put a 12k edge on the razor and then finish on the Jnat, that will tell you something else about your stone.
The beauty of Jnats is that they can be used in different ways and the results may vary accordingly.