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Ancient Ocean Jasper

I will let you guys know how my translucent jasper does once I lap and finish her to 800 grit. I’m loving the beauty of these stones.
 
I feel like I get a different finish even if I use the same kind of jnat. Got 2 asagi tomae, they both gives a slightly different finish, they are alike but still different.
I'm curious as how or in what way it resembles a specific jnat? What kind of jnat? There are so many jnats with different characteristics, even in grit, coarse, mid, and various finishers.
Let alone in the type of slurry be it mikawa nagura or different tomo nagura, all in the "jnat" area.
 
I recently started experimenting with the Ancient Ocean Jasper, and I get a different and slightly better edge off of it than I was getting from my highly regarded Charnley Forest stone. The edges are sharper and have about the same level of smoothness.

I haven’t tested every kind of stone out there, and as far as finishers go I only have a Purple Welsh, Zulu Grey, Arkansas Black, Arkansas Translucent, and a Charnley Forest. I have found that the Ancient Ocean Jasper from Wild Whetstones to give me the best balance between very sharp and very smooth for my face out of all of them.

Thus far I have tested five razors off of the jasper, and the edges’ sharpness level are comparable to finishing with 100 laps on my Zulu Grey followed 5-7 laps on CrOX. However, blades with the sharpness bumped up by CrOX have traditionally been too sharp for my face. I find the edge with the jasper to be almost as sharp, but much more smooth with zero redness/irritation.

In addition, the best edges that I have been able to get off of my natural finishers have a consistent haze/glaze appearance on the bevel near the edge to the naked eye and under the 10x loupe. The ancient ocean jasper finisher is giving me bevels near the edge that appear to be mirrors to the naked eye, and look more like a bevel near the edge off of a 20k synthetic stone than a natural stone under the loupe.

The only negative thing I have to say thus far is that I had to re-lap and finish the surfaces of the Ancient Ocean Jasper stonesI have two now, and the first one was not flat...the second one was more flat but had some wayward scratches on the surface. To lap and finish, I used 80, 120, 220, 400, 600 on both sides, and then I went to 800 on the finishing side. Then I used a razor to further burnish the finisher side a little bit, and to make sure the surface was prepped for finishing a razor. This lapping/finishing is a very long and arduous process (2-3 hours), because these stones are ultra hard.

I bought a second one to see if it is as good and consistent as the first one I purchased...and it took me even longer to lap/finish. So I will be testing the new stone over the next week on a couple of different razors.

The pics below are of the two stones, and then the mirror bevel near the edge of a Brian Brown razor that I use as my main tester razor on new hones. I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and you can see it and my cell phone camera in the bevel near the edge.

So thus far, I think highly of my first stone...it does what the proprietor says it will after setting a bevel on my Chosera 1k when used as he recommends. He has some YouTube videos.

Vr

Matt

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Razor bevel near the edge...you can see the camera on my phone in the first one, and my shirt in the others.

I realize a neat mirror on the bevel near the edge does not equate to a world class shave. However, that was what I got from this razor after final finishing off of the jasper.

Vr

Matt

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Gents,

I have been skeptical about these jasper stones, but the 8x3x1 made me a believer. I got the second one to see if I could reproduce what I was experiencing with the first one.

I just used the 9x4.5x1 after lapping and finishing it earlier to hone this unused Kron Vest Gran Mogul 14. The main difference was on this stone it is a bit harder to raise the slurry with a DMT 325. However, the mechanics and feel of honing the same. The stiction under a light stream of water on the finishing side was the same when the razor was finished...the bevel near the edge is a mirror.

The test will be tomorrow’s shave on three days of growth, and I am looking forward to it.

We’ll see how it goes.

Vr

Matt

I set the bevel on the Chosera 1k.

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I did the rest of the process on the jasper...one side to act as the intermediary stones in my usual progression, and the other side as the finisher.

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Gents,

The Kron Vest 14 off of the bigger jasper took an ultra sharp edge...every bit as sharp as a razor finished with a very high grit synthetic or CrOX. However, it felt smoother than those typical edges. My face usually does not tolerate ultra ultra sharp very well, however it did in this instance. Just a touch of redness on a small portion of the right side of my face. Overall, so far so good, and it was a fantastic shave!

Vr

Matt
 
There was a guy here who did some significant experimentation with various ultra-hard materials like petrified wood, agate, jasper, and jade. He was a big proponent of them. Can't recall who it was. I tried most of them. In general wasn't very impressed. They tended to be so slow the edge degraded faster than they refined it when honing.
That was me. For a while I honed exclusively on those.
I had a progression that went
Onyx for bevel setting, then Ruby, Jade and finish on Agate.
It worked fine for me.
Now I pull an agate from time to time, but I got a Gokumyo 20K and mostly use that.
 
That was me. For a while I honed exclusively on those.
I had a progression that went
Onyx for bevel setting, then Ruby, Jade and finish on Agate.
It worked fine for me.
Now I pull an agate from time to time, but I got a Gokumyo 20K and mostly use that.

How was the jade with honing? Similar to jasper?
 
How was the jade with honing? Similar to jasper?
I do not remember trying Jasper. The jade was about 10K. It was leaving the edge very smooth under a 60x microscope. I found that some agates had a finer grain, so I finished on that rather than jades.
That one below was the one I typically used last.

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Fresh hone off of my ocean jasper. Testing her edge today.

I set the bevel on my Chosera 1K. I performed two slurries and diluted to water. I finished under running water and did X strokes for about 50-75 strokes.
 

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I finally was able to get my near wedge Shavesmith FBU to pass the HHT along the edge, and it’s now delivering immaculate shaves! I actually used it twice in a row, which is a rarity for me!

Vr

Matt
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Kirk was the one that got me interested in the Jasper hones! They are pretty fantastic!

One thing that has been working well for me, is that I prep the rough side with a DMT 325 before doing the heavier sharpening work, and then I use the rub stone provided, stand it up on the edge, and rub it on the DMT 325. It is MUCH easier to build a slurry this way, and then I spray the slurry off of the DMT, and onto the rough side of the Jasper. I will do 2-3 slurries depending on what the razor needs before moving to the the finishing side.

On the finishing side, I dress the surface with an Ozuku Tomo Nagura. This really puts a nice polish to the finishing side, and then I typically do 7-15 very light laps under water until stiction is fully achieved on the down and back portions of the lap. This has led to ultra sharp, extremely refined, and very smooth edges for me.

I feel like dressing the rough side with the DMT before each use keeps the cutting power going, and it prevents any uneven glazing that was pointed out earlier. Same with using the Ozuku Tomo Nagura on the finishing side...makes sure the surface has a very nice even polish before final finishing.

Vr

Matt
 
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Matty can you tell any differences between the two Jaspers you have or do you prefer one over the other?
I should have pulled the trigger last weekend and bought one but had my eye on the translucent. Seems Gabes stock on trans is running a little low at the moment. I see Camo is really liking his stone and i noticed he has the darker Jasper.
 
I only have experience with the “translucent” which is just butterscotch...it doesn’t have much of a translucent property like a trans ark.

I was so impressed with the first one, I purchased a second one to see if they were consistent in performance. The two butterscotch ones that I have perform the same, and I am happy to have both.

I have actually been going through this progression lately:

-Kill Edge

-Chosera 1k

-Shapton Glass 4k

-Naniwa 8k

-Ozuku Tomo Nagura Slurry on Jasper finishing side...I hone, spray water, hone, spray water until it’s diluted down to just water

-Finishing side of jasper under water for 7-15 laps

- 50-60 laps on Escher Barbers Gem starting with slurry diluted down to water by the end

I feel like by using the Escher at the end I maintain most of the sharpness and refinement of the jasper, but achieve a slightly smoother final edge.

This has been working great for me!

Vr

Matt
 
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Matty can you tell any differences between the two Jaspers you have or do you prefer one over the other?
I should have pulled the trigger last weekend and bought one but had my eye on the translucent. Seems Gabes stock on trans is running a little low at the moment. I see Camo is really liking his stone and i noticed he has the darker Jasper.
yes sir, like mine very much.

I got the smaller barber hone size as I'm only using as a finisher.....or at least originally planned that way. think with the 5 x 2.5 size i could get by with doing work on it too if I needed to.

camo
 
Matty can you tell any differences between the two Jaspers you have or do you prefer one over the other?
I should have pulled the trigger last weekend and bought one but had my eye on the translucent. Seems Gabes stock on trans is running a little low at the moment. I see Camo is really liking his stone and i noticed he has the darker Jasper.
I also have the "standard" Jasper, it's been my go to finisher for about a month. I have been going 1k to jnat botan, tenjyou, mejiro, koma, tomo, then on to clear water on the Jasper. I had some minor issues after I first lapped it with some grit releasing, but now it seems to have cleared up. It's a killer finisher.
 
@camoloc has done a little bit from my understanding.

mineral oil some. think I prefer water or dry......subject to change any given day.

did figure out honing with both right and left hand while under running water is good thing to maintain that evened sticky feel.

good news on my stone.....the 4 sided diamond hone i have 200/300/400/600 removed the imperfections on one side perfectly. final lap of 800 WD on marble.

I think these are softer than Arks........the saw marks in the face are completely gone now. don't get me wrong.... still hard as........well you know.

camo
 
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