Thread: Advice with King Japanese water stones

My only suggestion is drop the unknown stone out of the equation and work the King 8k more, check the JaNorton thread for some tricks on the last finishing strokes to get the most out of it.. The tricks that work on the 8k Norton should transfer to the 8k King...

Maybe one of the Canadian members is close to you and can take a look at the unknown and give you an idea of what it really is
If not you could get some good all around pics of it and maybe someone on here can take a stab at what it is

Sounds like you got a good start on honing though

I have the same king stone 8000grit, I'm a traditaional woodworker and also use one for all of my plane irons chisles and such. I've used the nagura in both woodworking and razors and I'm just not a big fan , the stone does just fine without it . I don't even need to flatten the stone that often and really don't need alot of water ether. But for the value the king stone is the way to go. Best of Luck with that edge and your stones.

Glad to hear your honing went well. I am also using a King set-up from Lee Valley. A combo 1000/4000 and the 8000. I am a begginer and bought a razor from whipped dog to guage my honing. I have yet to get my edge to shave as close as Lynn's razor does. I am just guessing that barber hone made the difference in your honing. I have been thinking about pucking up a Naniwa 12000 to get a finer polish. What I noticed with the King stones (with my minimal experience) is they respond better to standard hone rotation, low grit to high. The pyramid technique doesn't work as well on these stones. And remember I am a beginner. I get a good shave out of these hones, but it takes three passes to do what what Lynn's razor does in two, and with less irritation. Im glad you started this thread, I was almost starting to think I made a bad choice getting the King hones.

Originally Posted by GeorgeyBoy

Glad to hear your honing went well. I am also using a King set-up from Lee Valley. A combo 1000/4000 and the 8000. I am a begginer and bought a razor from whipped dog to guage my honing. I have yet to get my edge to shave as close as Lynn's razor does. I am just guessing that barber hone made the difference in your honing. I have been thinking about pucking up a Naniwa 12000 to get a finer polish. What I noticed with the King stones (with my minimal experience) is they respond better to standard hone rotation, low grit to high. The pyramid technique doesn't work as well on these stones. And remember I am a beginner. I get a good shave out of these hones, but it takes three passes to do what what Lynn's razor does in two, and with less irritation. Im glad you started this thread, I was almost starting to think I made a bad choice getting the King hones.

You shouldn't need the 12 k to get an excellent shaving edge the 8 k should be giving you that. A 12k will only give slightly better edge then the 8 k. If your not maxing out the 8 k the 12k won't really help.

For the pyramid system your going to need to increase the number of laps some. The king stones cut slightly slower then the Norton's.

Thanks for the feedback, I should also note I am not using a slurry stone.

Originally Posted by GeorgeyBoy

Thanks for the feedback, I should also note I am not using a slurry stone.

I used King stones for 30 years w/o a nagura. Got a nagura last Christmas and have been using it since. Honestly, I cannot tell the difference in the edges. The slurry comes faster with the nagura and I guess that is a good thing.

I humbly beseech the masters to enlighten us. Does the nagura slurry start polishing the edge faster, sharper or both?


Dave

I've been using a king combo 1k/6k for the past 3 or 4 years, I started off using a synthetic nagura quite a bit for the first year or so, I think it's rated an 8k, but it works fine without it. These days I keep a phig/chug slurry stone closeby and find that's more useful, on the 1k it draws up a 1k slurry from the stone and speeds things up if needed and on the 6k it can be used to quickly freshen/clean up the surface during honing.

After spending a lot of time submerged, I'd estimate a total of a few months, the 6k side of my combo has started to develop cracks, I can still hone on it but I get the feeling it's dying. I had a look around the interwebs and found some info from King saying only the 1k should be soaked and higher grits should be splash and go as soaking may lead to cracking, which may be something to bear in mind.

Just the fact of knowing the King stones are slow cutters makes a significant difference. I spent my evening yesterday on the 8k only and had pleasant results. I got a nice grabby TPT and a much nicer mirror finish. All those strokes are really building up my consistency. I lapped on DMT at the start and once in the middle of the honing session. I liked the shave, and I am going to work on the 8k a little more today and see if I get better results.

try getting a sharpening DVD, Murray Carter has a very detailed video on sharpening

Originally Posted by dedox

try getting a sharpening DVD, Murray Carter has a very detailed video on sharpening

When it comes to razors, you will do better here. Plenty of vids, a leading wiki and more people to help you than you can shake a stick at.