$400 Jnat Budget - what would you get?

[catchacoolbreeze]

Imagine - you have no Jnats but you have all your Jnat knowledge and experience that you have accumulated over the years. You have a $350 to $400 budget (could be stretched to $500) and you want a killer Jnat setup to start the collection. What do you get? Where do you get it from? What's your reasons?


It could be something new or something in your actual current collection already in the budget range. It could be one stone or many, with mikawa naguras or without, just tomo, etc. Whatever your heart desires.

 

[pravula]

following...

 

[GreazyThumbs]

Something like this would be a great place to start for someone starting to get into JNATs. TomoNagura Kit This would give you a "pre assessed" finish stone (Awasedo) as well as a full graded dnagura set to give you the full JNAT experience. This kit while maybe not the most beautiful, would give you killer edges for the rest of your life and you kids lives, etc... You can always take your chances with a random JNAT and you could get lucky and find a razor capable stone. On the contrary you could also waste a good bit of money. You could also build your own kit with some of the better JNAT vendors, who have identified good razor stones. There is another thread out there with some of the recommended vendors.

 

[Christian1212]

Probably would just find the best stone I could with just a tomo nagura. I think japanesenaturalstones has some cool stones up at the moment. If in the budget and I could get 2.5 inches of width, I'd look at keith from tomo nagura or Flo from zeb razor because they test their stones with razors and rate them.

 

[captaincaed]

I was going to suggest Keith’s kit, but @GreazyThumbs beat me to it. I have one of Keith’s stones, like it a lot. The couple other folks I’ve spoken with who have tried his stones agrees that what he puts out for sale is generally quite good, and the descriptions are based on real use and testing.

So maybe try that kit if the description sounds right, maybe drop him a line to see about a recommendation if you’re looking for something a little different.

I like the kit since it gives the full nagura spread for versatility. You can lean toward keenness or comfort, depending on how you want to finish. Well vetted nagura are a luxury. I’ve struggled with a few unknowns, had to chuck some out.