Thread: Playing with a Jnat

Dang-Now you guys have got me wanting another J-Nat. I keep drooling over Keith Johnson/TomoNagura's complete Shubodani JNat kits on Etsy-must be strong!

I did 3 passes on the 20K as Oz said. The keenness level jumped up like a rocket! 3 laps. I would never have thought it would take such a little amount to make such a big difference. Now, I feel its not a true Jnat edge but I learn something new. With this razor being my first real attempt to learn the Jnat it most likely wasn't as far as I could have gone to start with. So I think this was a great learning experience with only 3 laps. Hoping I will get some time in the next two days to do more testing and get more time on the Nagura/Jnat to take another step closer to understanding.

Another thing you might wanna try..

Your stone may be slow in the cutting department.

When you make each Nagura slurry also add some DMT slurry to the mix . This might help speed up the whole process and give more noticeable results.

Originally Posted by Gasman

I did 3 passes on the 20K as Oz said. The keenness level jumped up like a rocket! 3 laps. I would never have thought it would take such a little amount to make such a big difference.
Hate to say I toldja so You can get there with a Jnat, maybe not with yours but your further testing will show you what it can or can't do.

Now, I feel its not a true Jnat edge but I learn something new.
With all the razors I've honed I've come to the conclusion that if you have the edge at it's optimum it doesn't matter how you got there. I really can't tell any difference in the sharpness or comfort. I know a lot of guys will say their coticule or Jnat edge is super comfortable compared to a synthetic but another guy using the same razor could say it's not as sharp as he likes. So one hones to one's liking but if you take an edge to it's smallest usable width the micron size is the same however you got there.

With this razor being my first real attempt to learn the Jnat it most likely wasn't as far as I could have gone to start with. So I think this was a great learning experience with only 3 laps. Hoping I will get some time in the next two days to do more testing and get more time on the Nagura/Jnat to take another step closer to understanding.

And so the hunt begins
Oh btw you don't need to spend 5k on a top tier Jnat. $500 ballpark, can buy you the best razor size stone, just not the prettiest. My Nakayama Asagi was $230 10 years ago but its less than 1/2" thick

Thanks for the replys. Hoping tomorrow i can get some good time on the stone. I have a few tests to do to see where my stone is in ability to start with. Ive been asking questions, watching vids and taking notes so i have a good feeling about this. It fun learning stones when you have an understanding. It wasnt that long ago i really didnt have much of a clue besides keep honing and hope for the best. Lol.

Today I started by making a slurry with a fine diamond card and worked it with a Boker. Made some more slurry and worked that even longer. Thinking that I would get to polishing in the end with the surry on the last time thru. I did the same thing with my Tomo slurry and another identical Boker razor. Test shaved a bit and couldn't tell much difference. If anything the Base stone had a little better edge. So this makes me think my base stone is harder than my Tomo and a finished slurry should be raised with the diamond card.

I then took one of the Bokers and went back to an 8k stone for 50 laps. It added scratches to the bevel as its not a Snow White 8K.
Went to the Botan, and worked my way up the nagura. On Botan, I made a slurry twice and worked it up to around 50 laps. Then moved to the next Nagura. I did this thru the rest of the Nagura including the Tomo. Then made a slurry with the diamond card and worked that surry about 50 laps. Cleaned it up and tested. Not keen enough. Did some more on base stone slurry and still not enough. Third time to the base stone slurry and worked it until it was almost clear water. Stropped and now I have a keen edge. I think! As I've also run out of whiskers to test on. LOL. But it is grabbing Arm hairs.

So now this will need to wait for a day or two. It passes the arm hair test and looks nice and straight on the scope. I'm finding very fine stria with my scope that has come from the base stone slurry. It's hard to see as the hazy finish is on top of it but I can see it. It's not from the 8K that's for sure.

I'm now going to try and go from a 20K edge straight to the diamond slurry and see what that gives me. As if using the Shobu as just a finisher.

I also did the 41 or so lap test that Alex uses on Youtube. The Ax method. It does seem to be the minimum needed to go from one Nagura to another.

If anyone has any opinions or other tests I should try, I'm all ears. I have found keen but it took a lot of work to get there. I don't think it should take so much time to get to where the edge grabs hairs, but I could be wrong.

You can get a very sharp smooth edge from one slurry after a 5k or so. Tomo or diamond plate slurry. 8k to botan is like going from 8k to 1k.

Thanks for that. I didn't know the Botan was that low of a grit. If you had to put a grit to it. Ha. I guess I removed any 8K stria than didn't I.