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[stone and strop]

How often do these need to be lapped and what should I be using?

Hey Aaron, glad to see you venturing on the honing road.
If you are using a Tomo you will not need to lap it often. The tomo will keep the surface fresh cutting.
Depending on the use and hardness of the stone (which looks hard) it will not dish in any meaningful way for some time.
W/D paper works fine for dressing Jnats. Rinse the paper before hand to rid it of errant particles and wash the stone well with water after.
Using 1000 grit will give a nice finish to the stone if you will be using a slurry stone anyway.
Good luck with it.

 

[i_dont_bite]

Hey Aaron, glad to see you venturing on the honing road.
If you are using a Tomo you will not need to lap it often. The tomo will keep the surface fresh cutting.
Depending on the use and hardness of the stone (which looks hard) it will not dish in any meaningful way for some time.
W/D paper works fine for dressing Jnats. Rinse the paper before hand to rid it of errant particles and wash the stone well with water after.
Using 1000 grit will give a nice finish to the stone if you will be using a slurry stone anyway.
Good luck with it.

Thanks for the advice. I'm finding the stone does a great job in maintaining the edge and is very easy to use. I've been using a tomo to create slurry, then go for 20 passes. Then I wash off the stone and do another 20 passes on water and strop. It seems like the stone will never break down given how hard it is but I'm sure at some point I'll need to lap it a bit.

 

[Sebrazor]

I have just sealed this old and dirty stone and try to protect the rest of the stamp.
I will take a picture of the stone when it is dry and lapped flat.

 

[Sebrazor]

This stone has a psychadelic effect when honing.
It is very hard, not super hard, but my hardest koma nagura can be perfectly used whith it.
It kicks only a very little from the base stone, the slurry is perfect.
It is, without a doubt, a Maruka and with a bit skill, THE razor finishing stone, the edges shave excellent.
From the look, it is not that hello yellow kitty Kiita, bud maybe, it is a Tomae Iromono Kiita with a bit greenish Karasu, defenitively a mystical look.

 

[rideon66]

Nice Iromono Sebastian.

 

[Sebrazor]

It has faded stamps in the middle of the two long sides, but no longer decipherable. I think earlier people did not care about stamps.

 

[eKretz]

It has faded stamps in the middle of the two long sides, but no longer decipherable. I think earlier people did not care about stamps.

I think you are right. They didn't mean as much back then. Now they are a sort of provenance. Except when they aren't...

 

[M14Shooter]

 

[Sebrazor]

These brighter patches, which look like flaking, are in my experience often a sign of a hard and good stone. Do you like it?

 

[M14Shooter]

I love the finish this J-Nat imparts on an edge .

 

[PanL]

First Jnat and first jnat honing with progressions (tenjyou, Mejiro & koma bottom to top).
Jnat is Nakayama awasado (as claimed by ebay seller).
Spent around 1 hour honing gently

on these after 4k chosera.
Haven't shaved but the hht results are equal to what I get after 10k naniwa.
Was fun to play with the stone though.. can't explain but it feels different than synths. And the drill with naguras and watching the slurry go dark etc.
And worth it if I can escape 8k 10/12k & 20k synths.
But the shave test is pending.. so whiskers crossed. (Chopping board is workaround till the sink bridge is shipped )

 

[C FrankC]

Do you have a tomo nagura that matches this stone?
How did you finish?
Looking forward to your test shave results.

 

[alex1921]

that's a nice looking Jnat PanL.
Did you lap it? If not I would, even though the stone might seem flat it almost never is.

 

[PanL]

Do you have a tomo nagura that matches this stone?
How did you finish?
Looking forward to your test shave results.

I don't have a tomo or botan. Did not use dmt either. Shave was ok 8k sort but no harshness. After koma I just did 5 laps on water.

that's a nice looking Jnat PanL.
Did you lap it? If not I would, even though the stone might seem flat it almost never is.

Thanks Alex, I lapped below the stamps and you are right.. took a while. Couldn't save the last alphabet though. Another photo here in sunlight before lapping.

Is a botan (first progression) and tomo (finishing) required?

 

[alex1921]

Again nice stone - and I like the sun and the green garden. We have sun alright but everything is covered by snow

After koma I do use tomo. Some people use diamond plate to raise slurry.
Botan required? It depends how high you go on synthetics and what cutting power your Jnat has. I was just testing 2 kiitas and the small one wipes 1200 Atoma scratches without any problem. In the Jnat world everything depends on your stone and skills.

I personally almost never finish on water, only on softer jnats. I find finishing on slurry much more forgiving for my skin. There are of course different opinions but I do subscribe to the school of thought that a broken down slurry is finer that the stone it self. Is that true? Who knows, I am no expert but I still get pretty sharp edges but much more mellow with slurry.

 

[alx gilmore]

This stone has a psychadelic effect when honing.
It is very hard, not super hard, but my hardest koma nagura can be perfectly used whith it.
It kicks only a very little from the base stone, the slurry is perfect.
It is, without a doubt, a Maruka and with a bit skill, THE razor finishing stone, the edges shave excellent.
From the look, it is not that hello yellow kitty Kiita, bud maybe, it is a Tomae Iromono Kiita with a bit greenish Karasu, defenitively a mystical look.

Sebastain.

I am happy that you have that stone and that it works for you. I love decorative stones myself and when they are fine and fast all the better. I will however disagree with you about your claim that it is a "Maruka" stone. I may not be up to speed on the current definition of "maruka", but up until a few years ago the maruka stamp was exclusively used only by Hatanaka company in Kyoto and under license by the Kato family who owned the Nakayama mine. I knew Mr. Hatanaka and I have looked at hundreds of Maruka stamped stones and I would like to gently suggest to you that Mr. Hatanaka-san most likely would have never himself ink stamped a stone like the one seen in your photo.

I am not questioning your ownership of this stone but to only critique the stone itself.

To begin with the Hatanaka company released ink stamped stones that reflected their prominent position as the premier wholesaler in Kyoto, and each stone was either dressed on all four sides and in almost every case the stone was dressed on the back also to a degree that it would sit flat on a table unless it was a display stone of some sort. The saw marks on Hatanaka stones are always very regular and professional looking. The fact that your stone shows on that nearest side a very irregular saw cut as a deformed unfinished surface is to me a dead giveaway of a poorly attributed stone. Those saw marks look like they were made using a handheld trim saw, not the type of table saw that all of the stone companies used. Along with the deeply undercut backside corner and the crude and hidden ink stamps, my opinion would be that that is not a Hatanaka Maruka stamped Nakayama stone.

I think you will find it helpful if you can in the future, compare more closely attributed Hatanaka stones to your samples, and to always try and err on the side of caution. I know first hand that Hatanaka did offer to the public stones in the $30,000 range, and surely offered to private clients far greater prizes. Taking this into account it is hard for me to justify that that same person and company might carelessly market such a stone, which could needlessly sully the future of his reputation by releasing examples as you have in your hand right now.

Just trying to be logical here,
best wishes to you.
Alex

 

[Ultimatezap]

Hi gang. Just got this from Maksim. A couple little flakes missing to the side of the stamps, but other than that it looks perfect on top. Super smooth. Nakayama Maruichi Karasu. Listed as 5+ hardness wise. Feels like glass.

Not certain what the stamps may mean (anyone?), but they're about to go away with a lapping.

I've wanted a nice karasu for some time.

I'm in love.

It will compliment the two bench sized stones that I got from Alex very well, I think.
Cheers.

 

[alx gilmore]

Very handsome looking stone, and the indicators do lean towards it as a Nakayama stone. Nice strong crow patterns.
Alex

View attachment 955319 View attachment 955320[/QUOTE]

 

[Ultimatezap]

Thanks Alex. I've been so happy with the stones that I got from you (finally figured out how to get a good edge from the Narutaki stone!) that I was hoping I might see a nice karasu example show up amongst your offerings. Never did, so when this came up...
James

 

[David]

I don’t know much about Jnats and stamps, but when the trusted sellers like Keith, Alex, Takeshi, etc, have maybe one or two Marukas in stock, and the eBay stone slingers have them up every single week it does make a man question things.