You don't hear much about the Naniwa Hibiki stones. And no wonder. They're not generally carried by the usual sources. And they are of a type not discussed much for razor honing: super-dense stones intended for woodworking tools.
My favorite synthetics are the Shapton Glass stones, and my favorite bevel setter is the Shapton Glass 1000. That's not so unusual, though many people gravitate instead to the Choseras, or the Shapton Pros, stones that provide nice scratchy feedback for what you're doing. The Shapton Glass stones are denser, more reticent, less forthcoming.
Some say the SG stones have no feedback. It's not true, but they do have a different kind of feedback. Instead of scratchy feeling that tells you what is going on, they have resistance when something is still not smooth, and utter glasslike smoothness when the metal is smooth. I've gotten to like that kind of feedback, a lot.
So it was natural for me to seek out the superdense synthetics, the Debados and the Hibikis. But it was all a failure. I tried multiple times to use them for honing, and failed every time.
Tonight I did not fail. I don't know what is different, but my guess is that my hands have finally learned to back off on the pressure. One of the big rewards for a dense stone is that you can take off metal with pressure, and get a surprisingly sharp edge for the grit, when you back off on the pressure. I did both of those with the Naniwa Hibiki 1000 tonight, and got an edge I would happily shave with. When I went on to light strokes on the 3000, it got even sharper, and tomorrow I will go on to the 6000, and then a JNat which has been as neglected as these Hibikis for some months, an extra-fine Ohira Suita which ought to make a perfect prefinisher, with sufficient time investment.
I'm very pleased. I had a mental model of these superdense stones that did not seem to be working out in practice, and somehow things came together, and now it all works. I'll have to take another crack at those Debados soon.
My favorite synthetics are the Shapton Glass stones, and my favorite bevel setter is the Shapton Glass 1000. That's not so unusual, though many people gravitate instead to the Choseras, or the Shapton Pros, stones that provide nice scratchy feedback for what you're doing. The Shapton Glass stones are denser, more reticent, less forthcoming.
Some say the SG stones have no feedback. It's not true, but they do have a different kind of feedback. Instead of scratchy feeling that tells you what is going on, they have resistance when something is still not smooth, and utter glasslike smoothness when the metal is smooth. I've gotten to like that kind of feedback, a lot.
So it was natural for me to seek out the superdense synthetics, the Debados and the Hibikis. But it was all a failure. I tried multiple times to use them for honing, and failed every time.
Tonight I did not fail. I don't know what is different, but my guess is that my hands have finally learned to back off on the pressure. One of the big rewards for a dense stone is that you can take off metal with pressure, and get a surprisingly sharp edge for the grit, when you back off on the pressure. I did both of those with the Naniwa Hibiki 1000 tonight, and got an edge I would happily shave with. When I went on to light strokes on the 3000, it got even sharper, and tomorrow I will go on to the 6000, and then a JNat which has been as neglected as these Hibikis for some months, an extra-fine Ohira Suita which ought to make a perfect prefinisher, with sufficient time investment.
I'm very pleased. I had a mental model of these superdense stones that did not seem to be working out in practice, and somehow things came together, and now it all works. I'll have to take another crack at those Debados soon.
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