Thread: naniwa stones

Wow. Well, I'm very surprised by the reaction my posts caused. I thought that they were innocuous, and I certainly meant them as such. I'll go through and try to address anything about them that must have come off wrong.

Originally Posted by Pete_S

I like that you can use the sides on the thicker ones, and that you also have two full 3x8 sides to use, so you can go twice as long without needing to refresh the surface. Not trying to drive business from your website or anything, I think the Naniwa combo should replace the norton as the "recommended newbie stone", myself.

In the first part, I was just saying that I liked that the thick Naniwas have two sides that you can use, so that when one gets covered in swarf or gunk, you can flip it over to the other side and use that. I was also saying that I liked that you could use the 2 cm sides like really narrow hones, if one feels the need. I definitely wasn't trying to imply that I knew more than you, or anything like that. If that's how the post seemed then it strayed far from my intent.

Dylan summed up the the second part pretty well (except that I was referencing that I previously posted a link to a retailer that sells the thick Naniwas, that was what I meant about driving business from SRD), but just to be clear, in my post I meant that I didn't want to seem like I was posting links to other retailers to be a jerk. There are some people who do things like that purely to be obnoxious, and I was just saying that wasn't way I had posted the link. The second part was meant as a sort of courtesy more then anything else. I'm guessing that it actually was the part that came off wrong, and I certainly wouldn't have posted it had I realized it would come off badly. At no point did I mean to imply that your posts about the Naniwas were to just sell more from SRD, or anything like that, if that's how it seemed. I apologize for my lack of clarity, its easy (at least for me) to forget that people don't know what you're thinking when you post something

Regarding the naniwa combo stone, I listed some reasons before why I think they should be a good introductory stone, quoted above by Joel, but I realized a little later that it boils down to thats I would have liked to have gotten when I started out, instead of the Norton. Unfortunately they weren't available then, or at least that I knew about. It seemed like a good reason to me, but maybe I shouldn't recommended it for that reason, and I'll refrain from doing so in the future.

Originally Posted by Pete_S

Regarding the naniwa combo stone, I listed some reasons before why I think they should be a good introductory stone, quoted above by Joel, but I realized a little later that it boils down to thats I would have liked to have gotten when I started out, instead of the Norton. Unfortunately they weren't available then, or at least that I knew about. It seemed like a good reason to me, but maybe I shouldn't recommended it for that reason, and I'll refrain from doing so in the future.

Pete, I post how I like one hone or another all the time and what I like is subject to change. If it changes I will post that and I don't see anything wrong with that. As for recommending vendors or not.... I have dealt with SRD, Classic, Vintage, Invisible Edge, Rasage poulin, Tony Miller, HandAmerican and Perfect Edge. I have had great service from all of the above and will recommend one of more if I think it is appropriate to the topic or the poster's question. So keep saying what you have to say AFAIC. Just IMHO.

I wouldn't give it another thought Pete. Sometimes the tone or spirit of something is lost when it's just text on a screen. Lynn is the silverback gorilla here and every once in a while gives us upstarts a playful cuff about the ears. And fair enough. The guy's honed some 20,000+ razors and he has to listen to people like say, me, piping up about my preferences based on the forty I've honed.

The funniest exchange of this kind I can remember was when someone said he no longer needed to pyramid on the Norton 4/8 because he could hear and feel the exact moment when the bevel was perfect and ready to polish on the 8K. Lynn said gosh I haven't gotten to that point yet, having only honed around 15,000 razors, but I bow to your experience and look forward to acquiring that skill myself. (The poster was a very good sport, knew he'd been licked and was charming and funny about it.)

Note that if you read my short post about SRD as coming from you (which is what Lynn initially and accidentally did) then its context and meaning changes and it looks kind of insolent and mouthy. But that's all been cleared up.

I agree, don't take it personal. This is an open forum and many people ready what we post here. My point was just to make things clear to who ever reads this thread and not directed directly at you Pete. I've witnessed many of people quoting posts that were off base or misinterpreted. Look at all of the threads newbies put in the HHT. Please feel free to state your mind in a polite way at all times. My goal is always where the rubber meets the road and not usually on the journey. It's probably old baggage from doing metal working professionally. If I can enjoy the journey and get the rubber on the road at the same time great, but the journey isn't what I suggest people focus on until they know how to perform the task at hand and for newbies I feel the Nortons give the best feedback w/ consistent results. With time and new experiences this too will change. But just to be clear, I have used the Naniwa's and like the feel also. I will have to experiment with them more to find their proper place in my honing to meet their characteristics.

I look forward to reading your future posts.

Ah, ok, I see what happened now, it seems there was some confusion. I didn't really pick up on all of what was going on. I figured that I must have violated some faux pas, or given some really bad advice, though I didn't really see how.

I didn't take it personally if (again) thats how I came across, I'm actually pretty thick skinned, as my various drinking buddies will attest to. I just don't like giving bad advice, and it seemed like I had. So, I was just trying to courteously explain my motives, nothing more or less. I guess my post came out with more of a personal tone then I wanted. I usually try to err on the side of courtesy... except on occasion in "the conversation" that is... Also, I've always been impressed by how pig headed and idiotic those people who argue against the whole forum seem, and I'm really not interested in becoming one of those guys. But thanks very much for all your consideration.