Thread: Jnat questions

Thanks for the response guys,

it must indeed be my tomo nagura or diamond plate.
My stones are hard and so are my tomos mostly, my dfiamond plate is 1200, maybe I should try a 600 instead.

I tried to create slurry from a Coticule stone and it created slurry fine without any loose grit sort of speak. The Coticule is noticeably softer than any of my tomos though, so there might lie a solution there.

Has anyone tried shaving off of worked and thinned Coticule slurry on a hard / very fine Jnat?
I wonder of I could use my Coticule slurry stone as some sort of pre-finishing step, results look good under the microscope, I will see how it shaves first.

Never tried Coticule slurry as there are much better options.
A hard tomo on hard stone should not create chunks. Typically a super hard base stone would have a slightly less hard Tomo and vice versa, but there are no rules. It has to do with grit and fineness as well.
When trying the hard Tomo can you tell what stone is giving up the most?
That will tell you which is harder.
I would avoid Diamond slurry for now, using a 600 over a 1200 will not help at all.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Where is Steve when ya need him?
Maybe sending him a PM would be a good idea.

Oh yeah. He's doing rock climbing stuff now. But if you can get him to this thread id say he has all the correct answers. Not that what has been said is wrong. Ive bought Jnats from him and learned them. But in the end I found the Synthetic stones more to my liking.

Oops. That's Victor thats rock climbing.

Ha! Just reading this thinking 'I'll have to get in touch with Steve, I didn't know that he was into climbing too.'

Just an little update, might be helpful to someone, or maybe not.

I've been experimenting with my Jnats for a year now.
I've tried everything from slurry to water finishing.

As I was told by Japanese traditionalistic approach to finish on slurry and never on plain water, nothing really gave me the stellar edges, close but not quite there, no matter what I tried.
I've just recently stopped heeding the advice to not use them with water only, and bam, stellar edges. Exceptionally sharp and smooth!

I do use a dilution method, a la coticule, so I always start with slurry, dilute a few times then finish on water only. Amazing edges.
So far this has worked best on all my Nakayama and Aiiwatani awasedo stones, very nice edges indeed.

I found my best edged from mine, came from dry honing with weight of blade.

Have no idea what type they are, except, hard.

Ya, I believe I mentioned in my first reply that water only will give the keenest edge.
If you find it too sharp then use a little slurry to temper the edge.
If the stone is very hard I will use a light slurry then start with water only but keep an eye on it as it starts to polish the haziness out. Its a balancing act till you know what gives the best from that stone so you can recreate it.

Originally Posted by stoneandstrop

Ya, I believe I mentioned in my first reply that water only will give the keenest edge.
If you find it too sharp then use a little slurry to temper the edge.
If the stone is very hard I will use a light slurry then start with water only but keep an eye on it as it starts to polish the haziness out. Its a balancing act till you know what gives the best from that stone so you can recreate it.

Yeah true, but the comfort is also huge for me. YMMV for others.
But on water I also get my smoothest edges, and indeed insanely sharp!
Jnats this way give me the best combination of sharp and smooth out of any stone I've tried, love 'em, daily shaving was hard when I first started the hobby, but now it's so nice I barely even notice I just shaved because it's so comfortable.

Originally Posted by TristanLudloz1928273

Yeah true, but the comfort is also huge for me. YMMV for others.
But on water I also get my smoothest edges, and indeed insanely sharp!
Jnats this way give me the best combination of sharp and smooth out of any stone I've tried, love 'em, daily shaving was hard when I first started the hobby, but now it's so nice I barely even notice I just shaved because it's so comfortable.

I almost always finish with water only for all stones.
I have one Jnat that is super hard and water only is crazy sharp but not as comfortable. I have to use a little slurry to temper it for comfort. It's still VERY sharp but comfort is where it needs to be.

Facts of Life

"Synthetics are an Exact Science, my Naniwa or Shapton is going to perform the same as yours...
Naturals however by their very "nature" are different from one another, they are a Romance, you have to take her out for Dinner and Dancing first"

I can only tell you how my JNat dances, I can tell you how I got the most out of mine, but it most likely won't work the same for yours

My experience has always been to let the slurry go to almost dry and finish on that, I also always leave that worked slurry to dry on the stone
To be honest, if you are finishing on Water, I don't really understand the attraction of that particular JNat... I am also not a Huge fan of using Graded Nagura like the 4 Asano ones I own
I find much more comfortable edges using a a piece of Kita or a Matched Nakayama


Hone On !!!

The frustrating thing about these stones is that everything everyone said here is potentially true. What is the sound of one hand clapping? That’s the world of Jnats. I have a small, very hard stone. With a nagura progression I can get a decent edge. I usually finish on the clean stone with a tiny touch of soap. It delivers a good edge. But I’ll take my synthetic progression over it any day for ease and consistency.