Thread: Minimum kit for honing SRs

Originally Posted by strangedata

The problem of being a beginner living in Brazil is that I have to take every opportunity I encounter for getting equipment from the US. This time, a relative will be in NYC for a week, so I'm trying to learn and buy what I can with restricted time and budget. It'll probably be a year or more before I get a new opportunity.

Ideally I could just start with the Norton 4K/8K and in 6 months get a 1K and a finishing stone.

Until yesterday I was set in getting just the Norton 4K/8K, because I wasn't able to find the Naniwa 12K in the condition I needed (i.e. either delivered by Amazon to one of its lockers or sold by a store/person in NJ or NYC).

Today I found the Japanese Shapton 12K, which to my understanding should be equivalent to the American Shapton 15K, grit wise.

I guess the real question is whether the Japanese Shapton (Kuromaku) 12K would be an improvement to finishing the edge over the Norton 8K.

I thank you all in advance for your inputs and opinions!

IF I remember correctly, the Japanese grit ratings are actually finer than American ones. That is to say a Japanese 8K is finer than an American 8K. So in theory a shapton 12K (should be Japanese grit rating) would be an improvement to the Norton 8K. Might want to send Onimaru a PM regarding those hones, IIRC he uses the Shapton series so he should be able to give you proper guidance regarding their system.