New Okudo Aisa

[wdwrx]

My new Okuda arrived a few days ago from JimR, a fine gentleman, I say! (Thank you, Sir!)

I've just now gotten around to snapping a few photo's. Feast your eyes!

I've already honed a couple of razors a few times now... with limited success, using Jim's techinique (edit: it's not the protocol I'm having troubles with, but my own honing skills)
The edges are certainly showing promise though. I have a feeling the this stone will produce some really nice edges for me once I learn a bit more about her.

She's a chunky, drab lookin' old girl, but with an understated appeal when wetted down. The photos don't show the depth of figuring to her best effect.

There are some very faint kanji remaining on the back that only show up when wet. I will play around with my camera and see if i can' get them to show up a bit better.

I'm really looking forward to playing with this new stone.

Any input and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Woodash]

I've already honed a couple of razors a few times now... with limited success, using Jim's techinique (edit: it's not the protocol I'm having troubles with, but my own honing skills)
The edges are certainly showing promise though. I have a feeling the this stone will produce some really nice edges for me once I learn a bit more about her.

I've now had a chance to play with 3 different Nakayamas myself, and I find that some stones work well using JimR's method as described in your attachement where he STOPs refreshing the slurry, and some seem to work better with a water finish. Just my experience, FYI, FWIW, YMMV, OMG!

 

[wdwrx]

hhmmm... I've not really had enough experience yet to determine which route is most appropriate for this stone. I've tried a couple of iterations of the nagura method with the tomanagura (an Ozuku Suita) Jim sent with the Okudo and got a beautiful speckled bevel and a very even looking edge, but the most keenness I got was to finish on plain water, though I have yet to shave with that edge. It's a very hard, very fine finisher, and I'm a bit of a slow learner so I have lots of experimenting and practice to do.


I guess right now I'm at the stage where I'm not sure when to refresh, and when to allow the slurry to degrade, and how much water to add. I've read mention of damp, muddy slurry, and even dry slurry.
I also don't have a full set of nagura stones so I'm relying on my generally crappy dilucot edges for the early sharpening stages.


It's quite confusing to learn such a complex task without one-on-one, IRL mentoring, but I'm determined to try. And the lingo is killing me! i have a hard time with French and Spanish, (and even English at times) never-mind Japanese terms.

 

[Woodash]

I guess right now I'm at the stage where I'm not sure when to refresh, and when to allow the slurry to degrade, and how much water to add.

I don't think you need to have all the information. Just experiment, find out what works for you and the stone, and have fun. That's basically it AFAIK.

 

[professorchaos]

I don't think you need to have all the information. Just experiment, find out what works for you and the stone, and have fun. That's basically it AFAIK.

+1. It took a long time to get to know my J-Nats well enough to produce consistent edges. JimR's writings on his trials and experiments help tremendously.