Looking for new progression stones

[JohnEzra]

Well...

I'm actually pretty sure I'll dive into jnats one year. Alfredo tells me (at the time I asked anyway) that he was simply finishing my razor by lapping his hard jnat with a worn diamond plate and then using the slurry created by this lapping and that was it. Simple and elegant.

But still, knowing when to dilute, when to reduce pressure, how to read the tells, I'm sure that took Alfredo a lot of practice.

One world at a time. I only recently feel that I have got my systems running well. I am finally getting edges that are sharp, comfortable and repeatable.

Thanks again gents for your input. All this stuff is endlessly fascinating.

From my experience, I’d say your assessment of honing on Japanese Natural Stones is 50% right, 50% wrong, but you’re 100% over thinking it.

Ive had some that were tricky and took some trial and error, and some that gave up all their secrets immediately, but they’ve all been able to deliver a good edge. Assuming you buy from a reputable seller and your stone isn’t some piece of junk from eBay, you should be able to get the hang of things rather quickly.

At the end of the day we are just rubbing pieces of steel on rocks, not building a rocket ship. As long as you don’t let the slurry get too thick and muddy, when/how you dilute isn’t super critical. In other words if you dilute at lap 37 instead of lap 33, your edge will be just fine. That being said, don’t count laps, you’ll drive yourself mad trying to come up with a one size fits all recipe that doesn’t actually exist.

 

[Frank Shaves]

I'm actually pretty sure I'll dive into jnats one year. Alfredo tells me (at the time I asked anyway) that he was simply finishing my razor by lapping his hard jnat with a worn diamond plate and then using the slurry created by this lapping and that was it. Simple and elegant.

I have been using the Alfredo method, and getting really sharp and really comfortable edges off my Ozuku - and I have only been honing razors for four months. I am also getting good edges off my Naniwa 12k, but the JNAT seems to have a slight edge (pardon the pun) in terms of smoothness.

My advice is to try a small, hard JNAT like an Ozuku. It's really not that complicated - like anything, just takes some practice.