Show us your Japanese Natural Whetstones

[Steve56]

Arks can be great, but slow compared to a jnat - irrelevant if you like an Ark edge. I think that a good jnat can equal or maybe better a good Ark, but the fly in the ointment is that if you want a good razor Ark, you call Dan’s and what he sends you will be almost 100% certain a top flight razor finisher. That’s really tough to do with jnats, you just have to try the edges from individual stones, and while it’s fun, it can get expensive. Same is true of cotis I believe.

The right jnat can also do one stone honing just as a coti can, so they have a leg up on other stones in that department if it matters to you.

 

[Namkcakram]

Arks can be great, but slow compared to a jnat - irrelevant if you like an Ark edge. I think that a good jnat can equal or maybe better a good Ark, but the fly in the ointment is that if you want a good razor Ark, you call Dan’s and what he sends you will be almost 100% certain a top flight razor finisher. That’s really tough to do with jnats, you just have to try the edges from individual stones, and while it’s fun, it can get expensive. Same is true of cotis I believe.

The right jnat can also do one stone honing just as a coti can, so they have a leg up on other stones in that department if it matters to you.

Oh trust me I can get sharper edges from my JNAT collection, but it takes some fiddling or serious familiarity with a specific stone and blade combination to get sharper AND just as forgiving as a good Ark edge. The JNATs can go sharp enough that it’s pointless for me, it gets easy to overshoot and put my face in danger. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who legitimately NEED an edge like that to get through their beard comfortably, but for me it’s just excess for occasional entertainment value.

The appeal of the Arks is that just maxing an edge out on a Dans black like you described gets an absurdly good balance of sharp vs forgiving. It can reach the point of having the windshield wiper effortless slicing effect on my beard without exfoliating the entire first layer of skin and leaving me tomato red.

Busted two out tonight for touch ups on two razors:


Pray for my lather to be thick and my follicles to be low profile tomorrow morning you guys.

 

[Steve56]

A little more slurry usually tames those kinds of jnat edges.

 

[Namkcakram]

That’s probably the glaring Achilles heel in my collection is I have no real proper tomo nagura currently... I’m set up for tool honing so only one smaller “sho-honyama” that makes a great tomo. I end up doing things like rubbing a corner of my 3kg Tsushima on my much smaller awasedo. I can get by but its not ideal.

 

[kamp]

Today i received a nice package a (new to me) Nakayama with a tomo nagura also a Black tsushima nagura, nice a lot off testing and learning this new stone in the coming weeks

 

[Basil]

Did a touch up on one of my razors and noticed this awesome mirror finish on the Ozuku.

 

[David]

Neat pic.

 

[Basil]

Neat pic.

Thank you!! Really like how this surface mirrors the lights.

 

[alex1921]

Botan. Perfect size for hand held honing.

 

[Basil]

Botan. Perfect size for hand held honing.

View attachment 1012515 View attachment 1012516 View attachment 1012517

Amazing! I’ve always wondered about the benched sized nagura stones. I’m assuming a botan would still be used a bevel setter. But what about a koma?

 

[alex1921]

I use the botan after 1k or when the razor isn't shaving well and needs more than a touch up. That was the case of this razor. Touch up didn't fix it so going back to botan and getting the bevel all nice did the trick.
I then progress through the nagura like usual. So if I don't want to use koma on awasedo I will just use koma on koma toishi and hone. Adds some variety.
Honestly I only collected the whole set of mikawa toishi out of curiosity for my collection.

 

[1Speedster]

Ran this Hayashi Diamond 8000 through full mikawa nagura progression (Botan, tenjyou, meijeiro), koma, then finished on water with a bit of hand soap per the stone’s previous owner. Wow, this razor shaved my 7-Day itch without so much as an hint of irritation. ATG? No problem whatsoever.

The decision to go full bore with the Japanese naturals could not be more satisfying to me.

 

[Basil]

Simply stunning!

 

[alex1921]

Wow. The razor, the stone. Very nice.

 

[rideon66]

Very nice. Love that kan.

 

[Mr.Tee]

Cool stone...

 

[rideon66]

A new iromono barber stone.

 

[rideon66]

 

[1Speedster]

Simply stunning!

Wow. The razor, the stone. Very nice.

Very nice. Love that kan.

Cool stone...

Oops, forgot to check back here after the alert cleared.

Thanks guys! Amazing how accurately the pic showed off the colors of that hone thanks to the natural lighting from the window, and that Hayashi Diamond 8000 score was pretty much atop my vintage Japanese blade hunting list. Considering I got this blade and an NOS Eiko this summer along with bevy of gorgeous Jnats, 2019 will be one for the record books indeed.

 

[MO1]

View attachment 1018613

Suita?