Thread: Maxing out Jnats

Originally Posted by yondermountain91

Well I just tried the dishsoap and it definitely brought the keenness up but as someone said it was a little harsh so I will have to try again. Under 120x mag there's no chipping going on so I think it was just to sharp
....

At this point I would go back to my favorite topic "Lathering".

Most of us know this but beginners reading this might well be reminded:
Make sure your whiskers soak well enough.
Make sure your skin does not soak too much.
Adjust your lather to allow shaving lather more than whiskers.
Build a nice lather that allows the razor to glide over skin.
Know your face.

A few things to consider.
How good is your edge off the previous stone?
Waiting until the edge gets sticky is overdoing it IMO. The sticky part got out at some point during the big jnat craze but it is counter productive.
Your best bet , as Glen pointed out, is to go on slurry until it darkens and then keep on going very lightly. I personally add a drop or two of water when it starts to get too dry.
You need to have a good assessment of your stone as well, are you sure it is a finisher?

I am a jnat expert.
In my own head and on my own stone

Personally, water finishes don't work for me.
A weakened slurry with a touch of torque or a dry slurry finish gives me the best edges.
Although since i can't find a high quality hand held electric fan I don't bother with dry finishes anymore.

I also find chopping and changing up Tomo's for different metals makes a difference.

You wanna know the best way to max out a Jnat ?
Do 5 strokes on a Gokumyo 20k to finish

I guess I am not sure if its a finisher, I bought it as a finisher but if I had to lean one way I would say it is more on the pre-finish side of things.

Originally Posted by yondermountain91

I guess I am not sure if its a finisher, I bought it as a finisher but if I had to lean one way I would say it is more on the pre-finish side of things.

Send it to someone with experience with J-nats and have them evaluate the stone for you.

I have never really had luck on any Jnat with plain water, personally for me I like to have a hint of slurry just as I am coming off the hone, i aslo have recently found out that one can do 6-8 light laps and like weight of blade laps on a strop pasted with so .5 CrOx, the laps really don't affect the Jnat edge but seem to draw out a tad more keeness.

My regime is 1K Chosera for bevel then 4/8K Shapton GS for mid work then either a Shinden Asagi or Narutaki Asagi and then linen and leather and if needed do say 5-7 laps on .5 CrOx but 99% of the time no CrOx, have thought about adding a 16K Shapton just to add some varienty along with Jnats and the only and only coticule I own.

Originally Posted by Jnatcat

I have never really had luck on any Jnat with plain water, personally for me I like to have a hint of slurry just as I am coming off the hone, i aslo have recently found out that one can do 6-8 light laps and like weight of blade laps on a strop pasted with so .5 CrOx, the laps really don't affect the Jnat edge but seem to draw out a tad more keeness.

My regime is 1K Chosera for bevel then 4/8K Shapton GS for mid work then either a Shinden Asagi or Narutaki Asagi and then linen and leather and if needed do say 5-7 laps on .5 CrOx but 99% of the time no CrOx, have thought about adding a 16K Shapton just to add some varienty along with Jnats and the only and only coticule I own.

Water or slurry finish is mostly dependant on the stone.

The CrO is finer than Jnats especially as it is embedded into a soft substrate. As with using a .5 micron stone it is a quick n easy way to perfect an edge. You can even juggle back n forth between the 2 to customise the edge as you want it.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Water or slurry finish is mostly dependant on the stone.

The CrO is finer than Jnats especially as it is embedded into a soft substrate. As with using a .5 micron stone it is a quick n easy way to perfect an edge. You can even juggle back n forth between the 2 to customise the edge as you want it.

I have a light coating of .5 CrOx crayon rubbed into some napped leather on a paddle strop, after about 5-7 razors doing 8-10 light passes I give the leather a few new rubs of the crayon, have been playing around with it over the past few months and on some razors it's a noticable difference in the shave, I still love JNATS and romancing the stone but the CrOx does have it's place and yields decent results and just by doing say 7-10 laps IMHO yo still retain alot if not all of the JNAT edge and the CrOx just gives that last bit of killer edge if needed.

Let's wrinkle the CrO2 also, just like the J-nats themselves there are different grades of Crox, and they are vastly different

From the Iron Oxide doused inconsistent "Crayon's that are for sale everywhere, that are designed for Buffing to the 99.99% pure .30~ "soft" powder that is available by searching at the Chemical Supply houses..

You can actually hear the difference while stropping, between many of them..

If you think CrO2 is created equal you would be very wrong