I get very nice edges from my films and pasted balsa but I’ve always preferred my natural stones.
The only naturals I’ve got are a small coticule and some Welsh slates and I mostly shave off these.
I’d heard of course of JNATs but had zero knowledge on the subject so thought I’d look into it.
From what I could gather, the general idea was to use a hard base stone then make slurry with other coarser/finer rocks called nagura. During honing, the slurry would break down becoming finer and finer refining the edge as it went.
I found they were usually named from the mine, the colour of the stone and the layer. No one mine or layer could be said to be better or worse than another as even stones from the same layer could be very different, not to mention personal preferences in sharpness.
I had a look on Etsy and typed in jnat.
A seller called john Fitzgerald had some nagura for sale and so I contacted him to ask a few questions and to see if he had a suitable base stone and a nagura for sale to get me started.
After an email or two setting out my experience, budget, what I was looking for etc, John advised a 7 x 2 1/2 inch piece of base stones which he had. John told me that it was from the Shobudani mine, from the Tomae layer and was a yellow orange colour or ‘kitta’.
He said that many kitta stones were too soft for razors but this was a hard one. He was in the process of honing razors on it and experimenting with it and told me he was getting killer edges.
He also recommended an okudo kitta tomo nagura stone to go with it as a slurry stone.
It all sounded great so I thought I’d give it a try
The lot came to around £180 uk with postage from the US. Needless to say I never mentioned this purchase to my girlfriend.
What was I hoping for?
I suppose just a general increase in sharpness and comfort. Or maybe just to experiment. How to get the absolute best from a piece of metal and a piece of stone is a very fun and involved puzzle, with a ton of variables to play with.
13 days after ordering it, it arrived with a nice handwritten note and I opened it today.
It’s a nice light colour when dry, then an orangey yellow colour when wet.
I’ve never felt a stone like it, it’s hard and heavy but lighter by miles than my big slate, and has an almost high pitch ‘tink’ when I tap it with my knuckle. It has a soft silky texture to the touch it feels incredibly smooth. I liked it as soon as I saw it.
Big thanks to john who was always on hand to tell me about the stone and how he’d got his best results from it. He also explained the range of the stone and outlined several ways it could be used.
Ive just given it a go with an old razor I’ve got. Following John’s advice I honed it on 1u film then took it to the stone.
It goes a great colour when it’s wet and has a great swish sound under the blade. It’s sounds a bit like my coticule but has a louder, raspier, richer voice.
I never use slurry on my coticule and Welsh slate stones so the first slurry I made was a little thick. After a couple of laps it wasn’t running off the blade much, so I quickly added water but then probably got it a little thin, it’ll all take a bit of experience and working out.
I had 100 laps in my head so after 50-60 I diluted it more then for the last 20 I rinsed the stone and used plain water. I did a little more than 100 laps probably 120 until I saw the water undercutting well.
Under the loup the once shining film edge now has a lovely frosted finish to it. Im looking forward to trying the shave in the morning.
I’m sure it’ll take me quite a while to get good edges from the stone and lots of practice but I’m interested to see what my first jnat edge shaves like.
The only naturals I’ve got are a small coticule and some Welsh slates and I mostly shave off these.
I’d heard of course of JNATs but had zero knowledge on the subject so thought I’d look into it.
From what I could gather, the general idea was to use a hard base stone then make slurry with other coarser/finer rocks called nagura. During honing, the slurry would break down becoming finer and finer refining the edge as it went.
I found they were usually named from the mine, the colour of the stone and the layer. No one mine or layer could be said to be better or worse than another as even stones from the same layer could be very different, not to mention personal preferences in sharpness.
I had a look on Etsy and typed in jnat.
A seller called john Fitzgerald had some nagura for sale and so I contacted him to ask a few questions and to see if he had a suitable base stone and a nagura for sale to get me started.
After an email or two setting out my experience, budget, what I was looking for etc, John advised a 7 x 2 1/2 inch piece of base stones which he had. John told me that it was from the Shobudani mine, from the Tomae layer and was a yellow orange colour or ‘kitta’.
He said that many kitta stones were too soft for razors but this was a hard one. He was in the process of honing razors on it and experimenting with it and told me he was getting killer edges.
He also recommended an okudo kitta tomo nagura stone to go with it as a slurry stone.
It all sounded great so I thought I’d give it a try
The lot came to around £180 uk with postage from the US. Needless to say I never mentioned this purchase to my girlfriend.
What was I hoping for?
I suppose just a general increase in sharpness and comfort. Or maybe just to experiment. How to get the absolute best from a piece of metal and a piece of stone is a very fun and involved puzzle, with a ton of variables to play with.
13 days after ordering it, it arrived with a nice handwritten note and I opened it today.
It’s a nice light colour when dry, then an orangey yellow colour when wet.
I’ve never felt a stone like it, it’s hard and heavy but lighter by miles than my big slate, and has an almost high pitch ‘tink’ when I tap it with my knuckle. It has a soft silky texture to the touch it feels incredibly smooth. I liked it as soon as I saw it.
Big thanks to john who was always on hand to tell me about the stone and how he’d got his best results from it. He also explained the range of the stone and outlined several ways it could be used.
Ive just given it a go with an old razor I’ve got. Following John’s advice I honed it on 1u film then took it to the stone.
It goes a great colour when it’s wet and has a great swish sound under the blade. It’s sounds a bit like my coticule but has a louder, raspier, richer voice.
I never use slurry on my coticule and Welsh slate stones so the first slurry I made was a little thick. After a couple of laps it wasn’t running off the blade much, so I quickly added water but then probably got it a little thin, it’ll all take a bit of experience and working out.
I had 100 laps in my head so after 50-60 I diluted it more then for the last 20 I rinsed the stone and used plain water. I did a little more than 100 laps probably 120 until I saw the water undercutting well.
Under the loup the once shining film edge now has a lovely frosted finish to it. Im looking forward to trying the shave in the morning.
I’m sure it’ll take me quite a while to get good edges from the stone and lots of practice but I’m interested to see what my first jnat edge shaves like.
Last edited: