Any informations on these Naguras ?

[exocet]

Hi !
I received those 2 Naguras in a batch of straight razors. I do not know anything about those little stones. Does anybody have any information please ?

thanks in advance

 

[cotedupy]

I also have two of these stones, which were kindly given to me by someone:

As I'm sure you know; they're Asano stamped Mikawa Nagura, though it took me a little while to figure out exactly what they were, because the stamps don't include any information about the layer.

As far as I can see - these smaller stones are usually sold in sets of three, and they don't say what type each is. Apparently they can be from any layer, with the exception of koma which are not included in the small stones sets. So you'll have to judge for yourself which is coarser or finer, so you can know which to use first.

They're not 'seconds' in terms of quality - it's the same stone as larger examples, just that they're smaller.

 

[exocet]

thanks a lot for those informations !

 

[cotedupy]

thanks a lot for those informations !

No worries, enjoy! I find this kind of nagura can work very well on any fine finishing stone, not just Japanese ones .

Also, if you haven’t used Mikawa Nagura before - they work best with a short soak. 5 to 30 minutes.

 

[exocet]

thanks !

 

[gbupp]

These are often called "Ho-Bo" and they are supposed to be specifically used for the corner/chamfering of the whetstones. You aren't wrong though that they are just small pieces of regular stone, often unidentified or from broken off end pieces. They can be useful also to use to break down into smaller finger stones, if you are into that.