Thread: Playing with a Jnat

Thanks Marty.
My plan, on my next days off is to hone another razor on the jnat without tape. See if i get the stiction. That will tell me if this stone has that ability.
The one i honed the hell out of, i will go back to a little slurry and see if i can pull out a little comfort. Than start another razor or two on the jnat after a 12k edge playing with pressure to see where that gets me.

Although i do need to change the tires on all the vehicles to remove the snow tires and i need to cut down a small tree. The honey-do list never ends. Just gets longer.

I did an experiment once. 4 grey Jnats. Lapped with the same atoma plate, raised slurry with the same tomo to similar consistency.
Then I took a test razor and would go between stones. Hone 20 laps, clean slurry back to stone with my finger and then next stone.
Each stone started sticking at a different time and to a different degree. One got skippy, felt like cogwheel. Another at the same time just felt like increased resistance but no skippiness (not sure if thats a word or not).
What's my point. I think that different stones will develop a different degree of stiction, some will start skipping and it actually isn't that pleasant to hone on them at that point, some will just barely tell you they are starting to grab.
Also slurry consistency plays a role. You can be honing and just dilute the slurry and bam, you are sticking. The cushion between the edge/bevel and the stone is reduced and the contact increased.
Also like Marty pointed out, tape etc will reduce the feeling. My test razor has a beaten spine, pretty wide so the contact areas between the razor and the stone are much larger than a taped, thin beveled razor would have.

Thanks for the comment Alex. I will try and pay closer attention. Maybe its just slowing my stroke down and not sticking. Its a good point.

Jerry do you mind posting a picture of the Jnat? Just curious. And I love seeing pictures of them

I think i have one on my phone with the stamp still on it.

I was reading the wiki page on JNS. Thought before I started honing this weekend id do a little maintenance on my Jnat. I plan on using the Tomo enstead of my diamond card this weekend so i lapped and polished my Jnat. I think this will do.
I swear to you the stone is dry!


To get this result I lapped my Zulu stone. Thinking it is harder than the Jnat i figured it would be a very fine grit for burnishing. Then rubber the two stones together for 10 minutes or so. Then i used my Tomo on the Jnat under running water for another 5 minutes or so. Let it dry, and this was the outcome. I think its smoothed out and polished to the point I can get the magic out of the stone this time.

BTW, here is a pic i found on my phone of the bottom side of my Jnat. For those who like rocks...
This was after sealing it.

Wow that’s a nice mirror surface.

Also the back looks awesome.

Originally Posted by basil

•••Also the back looks awesome.

If you say so. Looks like a rock to me.
Thanks on the mirror finish. I was surprised it came out so well. If nothing good happens at least i got a shinny rock!

Not J-Nats per se, but in the "thin to thick" regimen some of us were experimenting around with on arkies, I would typically find that, given a well-done Nani 12k edge as a starting point, I would start "sticking" on plain water (without slurry) at different points along the blade within 50 or so back-and-forth strokes on my highly-burnished 8x3 SB ark with torque on the edge. Then I would/will add a drop of dish soap, and keep going until it sticks again (usually in the neighborhood of 50ish strokes again). Wash, clean and dry, add a spritz of WD-40, and sometimes I will even get stiction with the lube, always finishing with the usual x-stokes to even it all out.

For me, I've gotten the finest edges I've ever shaved with using this method of letting "the sticking point" tell me when I'm done, reducing the friction for the next step, and continuing on. If someone knows another level beyond that on the same kind of stone, I would try it. You guys know how hard novaculite stones are; you really don't want an edge "digging in" on one, so it may be playing with fire, but I haven't ruined an edge that way yet.

I don't have as much experience with Jnats, though I know some can be quite hard. Thanks for sharing the physics behind this phenomenon, Marty-I just mostly hone by intuition feel, and hardly every quantify anything. Interesting thread all around.