My first Jnat has arrived

[rambus007]

I ordered this from Maxim. He was really easy to deal with and responded quickly to all my questions. This is an Oozuko with an Asano botan and toma nagura (2). This was part of a new shipment he got before Christmas and after testing reported this stone to be a hard stone which I guess can be rated as 5 on the hardness scale. I haven't honed with it yet but will this evening.

I will have to refresh my memory on how to use these stones. I'll check out coticule.be because there's a short tutorial there which I remember was very well written. I guess I'll create slurry much like how I do with my coti and take it from there. Any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

[dr_zhivago]

Congrats! It's a nice stone and Maksim is a nice seller.
Which size is it?
i have an oohzuku i bought from him too. Seems a little bigger than yours but maybe near the same stone. Leaves really sharp and smooth edges!

 

[rambus007]

Thank you and yes he is very kind. I got a good deal from him I feel. This is 14.4cm x 8.2 cm x 1.4 cm. Just curious do you need to make a really thick slurry with the botan? Also is this similar to working with a coti or do I need to do more strokes?

 

[mainaman]

just make slurry with the Botan, then after you are done with it use the tomonagura.
You can finish with water only if you want.

 

[dr_zhivago]

I use a koma nagura and a piece of ohzuku as slurry stones. Finishing with clear water. I find ohzuku a hard stone where making slurry is quite difficult

 

[gull]

What website did you get them from?

 

[rambus007]

I use a koma nagura and a piece of ohzuku as slurry stones. Finishing with clear water. I find ohzuku a hard stone where making slurry is quite difficult

Do you use your koma nagura before your Oozuku nagura? Or do you substitute one for the other? What kind of honzan do you have?

What website did you get them from?

I'm not sure if you are asking me but I go to www.coticule.be

 

[mainaman]

Do you use your koma nagura before your Oozuku nagura? Or do you substitute one for the other? What kind of honzan do you have?

Koma is not going to be finer than your Oozuko.
Koma is used for sword polishing it brings the steel grains and features the best, that is why it is so expensive. For razors all you need is really a Mejiro, but Botan will do too.

 

[rambus007]

Koma is not going to be finer than your Oozuko.
Koma is used for sword polishing it brings the steel grains and features the best, that is why it is so expensive. For razors all you need is really a Mejiro, but Botan will do too.

Unfortunately Maxim didn't have any koma or mejiro stones. He only had the white botan and the toma nagura stones - one Oozuku and one Ohira. Thanks for the information! I have an order on hold for one mejiro and one one koma but with the shipping it will cost me about $77 usd. I have spent too much this month so I'm going to wait till next month.

koma nagura 3320 yen
mejiro betujyo銆€ 1900 yen
Shipping 1200 yen
------------------------------------------------
Total 6420 yen = about $77 USD.

Would you guys say this is a decent price to pay for two nagura stones?

===================
Here's an update on my honing tonight. I tried to hone three razors this evening. The first one was a dead razor and I just can't seem to put an edge on it regardless of what hone I use.

The second on was an ebay find that has a slight frown and it actually honed up will with a decent edge. First I used botan - 6-7 sets of 20 half strokes, then 20 regular laps of x strokes. Rinsed, then I used the Ohira nagura for 5 sets of 20 half stokes and 40 regular laps of x-strokes. Rinsed again and did 40 laps on water.

The third razor was an HMC 6/8" in fine condition. I was able to hone it up on my coti and so I knew the razor was good. This time I used the botan (1st photo)+ Oozuku nagura (2nd photo). I did pretty much the same sets of strokes as above but this time I got a fantastic keen edge coming off the Oozuku. It as much better than the 2nd razor but this was partly due to the fact that this razor is in near new condition despite being very old. I am going to take a shower now and test shave these two razors.

EDIT: I went back to coticule.be and read the tutorial and realized that I didn't refresh my slurries when I was supposed to do so. I seem to have gotten good results this first try but maybe that's beginner's luck. I'll have to do it properly with the HMC next time and see how that compares to this first honing.

 

[mainaman]

Sounds about right to me.
Again Koma is not needed, not sure why it is so hyped for razors it is not much finer than Mejiro.

 

[rambus007]

Sounds about right to me.
Again Koma is not needed, not sure why it is so hyped for razors it is not much finer than Mejiro.

Well the shipping would remain the same so I figured for about $35 more I might as well get the koma. In the worst case I guess I can sell it for what I paid and it won't be a loss for me.

 

[dr_zhivago]

I use Koma after the ohzuku. I am not an expert but this combination works the best for me

 

[Woodash]

I use Koma after the ohzuku. I am not an expert but this combination works the best for me

Interesting that you (apparently) progressed from fine to less fine. What effect did the koma have after the ohzuku (ohzuko/oozuku/oozuko)?

 

[dr_zhivago]

I read this too... Maybe it depends about each stone...
But my little experience tells me the edge is smooth like this.
It would be nice to find an article or post wich clarifies all this we are talking about

 

[rambus007]

I read this too... Maybe it depends about each stone...
But my little experience tells me the edge is smooth like this.
It would be nice to find an article or post wich clarifies all this we are talking about

http://www.coticule.be/japanese-hones-a-traditional-approach.html

 

[dr_zhivago]

http://www.coticule.be/japanese-hones-a-traditional-approach.html

I knew the article but never read it carefully