Thread: Hone of the Day

that there is a mighty big komo. been thinging about getting one as they are only getting rarer. are they truly worth the price? that much of a noticable step up from mejiro? or even just ozuku with diamond slurry?

im starting amass a fair number of jnats (quite the rabbit hole) but komo is still not part of the collection. yet.

Originally Posted by sloanwinters

that there is a mighty big komo. been thinging about getting one as they are only getting rarer. are they truly worth the price? that much of a noticable step up from mejiro? or even just ozuku with diamond slurry?

im starting amass a fair number of jnats (quite the rabbit hole) but komo is still not part of the collection. yet.

That's a good question. I always use koma so hard to tell. I would have to test an edge shave with mejiro and then followed by koma. Of course a fair comparison would require another round of mejiro as well.
I do use DN slurry on some jnats and I think it works the same. When I use DN slurry it's to mainly test a stone after 1K and see if it's capable of taking me the whole way but those shaves are by no means inferior to tomo shaves. At least I cant tell the difference on my face.

This particular edge looked bad as expected under the scope after the coticule, they are known based on what I have read to not look pretty. The koma cleaned it nicely. Would the ohzuku have done the same with DN. I think so. One thing I have noticed is that the harder Jnats dont carry so much cutting power like the softer stones and particularly kiitas so the the nagura helps fill that void but after a coticule I think it would have done ok. Now after 1 or 3k I dont think so. I have tried multiple hard jnats including the famous marukas in mizu and the edge under the scope after 1k is lagging. Not all deep striae are gone the same way as a suita or a nagura progression would clear. They do get the kasumi/hazy look but there is more room for improvement.

Of course as they say YMMV since we all have different stones so what my asagi can do might be different than what others see.

To answer your question - yes I would get a koma nagura. I believe it's good to have multiple stones in your arsenal and that way you can experiment.

blue steel#2 tanaka knife on that sweet sweet kiita. Edge has slowly been going and stropping it on the stone wasn't working as great as it use to. Made some DMT slurry and did a bit of work on both sides and finished with edge trailing strokes. Edge turned into a real screamer and is lazer sharp again. Thought you guys might like

Hone of the Day on a snowy Tuesday

Snowing here too.Here is my Rose Rock.

There is a Method...
that is to say Method hand soap. I had a rather new hone that repelled water.
I put some foam from a Method brand hand soap to wet the hone and found that
the razor felt smoother on the hone. Yes I could use lather but I was honing not shaving.
It seems to rinse clean under cool water. A dish soap like Dawn diluted nicely would
also work. Some hand soaps are full of lotion so not all are OK.

Iwasaki 2771 on a Hatanaka Nakayama Kiita

My Coti Paddle hone, I got it last year at a carboot sale for less than £10 granted I had to clean it, lap it, sand the wood stain the wood and varnish it, but it was worth it, Ive had many a coti pass by my place but never really like any of em enough to keep hold of em, I had the lovely razor above Barbier A Levroux for awhile I had honed it my self but not keen on the shave, so I ran it along the Coti, and WOW its been my goto razor now for 2 months, the razor is a perfect combination of style heft, great to hold with the thumb notch, I will be keeping both that much I know.

A new arrival today from Zak’s big sale (thank you Zak!), an ivory scaled Joseph Rodgers (on the right) which is joining it’s slightly wedgier brother on the left in the image. They make a good pair!

First off, I Sharpied the bevel and made a couple of super light passes to see how the bevel hit the hone, and it was pretty much full contact sans tape, so all is good in the bevel hood. I continued on with the 2k Shapton Glass until it looked good visually, then palm stropped and tested by HHT. Usually HHT isn’t great off a 2k but a 2k edge should cut hair, and it did toe and heel, but the middle was weak, a visual inspection told me that I needed a little more time on the 2k. It probably had a tiny frown from narrow hones/pasted strops whatever that was not visible just by looking at it. Anyway, about 30 more strokes did it and it passed consistently along the edge.

Next up, 4k Shapton Glass, followed by 10 canvas/20 cordovan on a Kanoyama strop, and repeat HHT. It passed very well all along the edge. Now, if you have a good consistent HHT at 4k, you can almost sleep through the rest. A fast Nakayama kiita with diamond plate slurry got me from 4k to the finisher, which is a hard asagi that always makes a smooth edge, slurried with a Nakayama tomo. While I had the slurry going, I touched up the other Rodgers just so they’d both be the same. 20 canvas/35 suede/65 cordovan gave me silent HHT.

Cheers, Steve

Finally got the Wilton honed up.


2 layers of tape, the bevel came out a little wonky where there’s a warp near the heel. Got through the chipped up edge with a little breadknifing then set it twice on the 1k got up to the 8k and things started showing up at the edge I hadn’t previously seen them went back to the 2k to clean it up. Finished it on the 12k we’ll see how I did tomorrow for “Valentines Day”.