Jnat HGAL system?

[Joe Edson]

So in my attempt to further my research on natural hones I am now wondering about japanese naturals. The thing that keeps coming up is the HGAL system for rating the stone. What exactly are you looking for in these numbers for say a finishing stone. Hardness of 5? GAL's of all 3+++ or higher? REally confusing system. Just trying to further my knowledge on the confusing world of natural hones.

Also, in bringing an edge up from say a DMT 1200, do you progress through different stones (i.e. Aoto then something medium, then a Nakayama to finish)? Or can you use one finishing stone and different Nagura (i.e. Botan, Mejiro, etc.) and progress through on one stone.

All of this is very interesting to me and I'm just trying to further my knowledge - not looking to buy any stones any time soon. Although it seems like 330mate has the best prices for these, but that comes with some risk. Although I've been able to somewhat navigate his website, and it seems like you can pick your actual stone there as opposed to the eBay store where it is a random stone.

 

[mainaman]

I do nit think the system is useful.
I have gone from 1k straight to Asagi and it works just fine, as long as the right honing method is used.

 

[professorchaos]

Not a big fan of the HGAL system. It appears to be an effort to shoehorn Japanese natural hones into a system those familiar with western hones can understand. Since honing on these hones is subtly yet distinctly different, HGAL tends to over-simplify a given hone's attributes.

As many have said, if you want to get one, use it first. Should that not be possible, wasn't for me, you want to have someone help you purchase the right hone for you.

While you can use one hard stone and several nagura for the entire process, I also use a Blue Mountain Aoto. I like how it works with a slurry. Especially when I have set the bevel on a DMT 1.2K.

 

[Woodash]

So in my attempt to further my research on natural hones I am now wondering about japanese naturals. The thing that keeps coming up is the HGAL system for rating the stone. What exactly are you looking for in these numbers for say a finishing stone. Hardness of 5? GAL's of all 3+++ or higher? REally confusing system. Just trying to further my knowledge on the confusing world of natural hones.

Also, in bringing an edge up from say a DMT 1200, do you progress through different stones (i.e. Aoto then something medium, then a Nakayama to finish)? Or can you use one finishing stone and different Nagura (i.e. Botan, Mejiro, etc.) and progress through on one stone.

All of this is very interesting to me and I'm just trying to further my knowledge - not looking to buy any stones any time soon. Although it seems like 330mate has the best prices for these, but that comes with some risk. Although I've been able to somewhat navigate his website, and it seems like you can pick your actual stone there as opposed to the eBay store where it is a random stone.

The risk is mainly that you can never (it seems) get a response back from him - even when it's a simple question. My experience (very recent): you're very unlikely to get a 'top end finisher', but you'll wind up with something very usable >8K - perhaps significantly >8K; something definately good as a standalone hone and I think very suitable for the nagura progression. Good value for a 'journeyman' kind of stone, but you do get what you pay for. My experience, anyway*....


* Disclaimer: I'm new at this; I have no credibility....
*******

E.g., Like I said, this is not a 30K stone, but, it does make a very fine scratch pattern, especially with the finer naguras. I haven't yet created a slurry with the stone itself, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that works. The shave quality is very good right now, and whatever it may be lacking is probably due to limitations of my own skills rather than the hone itself.

 

[Joe Edson]

The risk is mainly that you can never (it seems) get a response back from him - even when it's a simple question. My experience (very recent): you're very unlikely to get a 'top end finisher', but you'll wind up with something very usable >8K - perhaps significantly >8K; something definately good as a standalone hone and I think very suitable for the nagura progression. Good value for a 'journeyman' kind of stone, but you do get what you pay for. My experience, anyway*....


* Disclaimer: I'm new at this; I have no credibility....

Did you order from his eBay page or directly from his website?

Thanks for all the info everyone. I think that if I do get into honing that I'll start with a coticule first. Seems much simpler.

 

[Woodash]

Did you order from his eBay page or directly from his website?

Thanks for all the info everyone. I think that if I do get into honing that I'll start with a coticule first. Seems much simpler.

Although you can translate his website, I found it a little difficult. I just went with EBAY. Whether that was the best option or not, I don't know. I attach pics of what I wound up with above.

 

[Kees]

I think this HGAL grading system was invented by one single vendor. So IMO its only use is comparing the stones of this particular vendor with one another.

 

[Woodash]

Now that I've had some time to work with my stone, I'd say that on balance, 220mate's HGAL rating was not too bad in this case. The stone is very hard, and cuts reasonably fast with great feedback. The only thing that was really unknown was the grit (he rated at 3++). After nagura progressions followed by slurry built on the hone, I wound up with an edge that was extremely clean, kinda looking like very uniform frosted glass. Took me a while to figure out how to do that, but it just gave me as good a shave - or damn near as good - as any I've ever had. Sharp, clean, and extremely smooth. This stone may not be 30K+, but I'm guessing it's considerably more than 10K.

FWIW....