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Wade and Butcher stone progression

Work up a little slurry with a diamond plate to set the bevel, with circles and X laps. Then wash the stone and razor, joint the edge lightly and reset the bevel on just water and a clean stone.

A little slurry will make the stone more aggressive but, will damage the edge, with the slurry pounding it.

Once the bevels are flat, you can bring the edges back to meeting quickly on a clean stone.

May take a few laps and a little pressure depending on the condition of the bevel and edge.

You will be surprised how aggressive that stone can be. A lap or two can pump up a failing edge. Too many laps and the edge is sharp, but harsh.

Experiment, with a 20k stone, what's the worst that can happen?

I think you wrote that as I was doing it. I was pretty close to doing what you said.

Here is how it turned out:
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Just kidding. The razor arrived unsharpened and I also killed the edge so that I wouldn’t cut myself when I was cleaning up the corrosion. This pic is right before I started the session and it was very dull.
 
I did six sets with the SG20K. My dull diamond plate was having a real hard time abrading the surface and generating much slurry. First two sets were with the diamond generated thin slurry. Third set was with no slurry. This helped but was going way too slow. Fourth set I used a Shapton 12K nagura slurry which helped. Then a fifth set with SG20K slurry again, and a sixth no slurry set.
This got it from completely dull to easily shaving arm hair.
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Note that this is the same magnification as the other previous razors. The bevel on this Parker is very small and I did not use (forgot to use) any tape on this.
 
After getting it to shave arm hair I switched to a surgical black Ozuku. Did one long set with diamond generated slurry and one final set with no slurry, just water and a touch of Dawn.
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It’s kinda neat seeing the smooth edge change to the “sand blasted look” from the jnat.
Finished with 50 laps stropped on leather and it was easily passing the HHT.
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I’ll test it out tonight.
 
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Okay, shave impression. First, the bad.
It wasn’t that sharp. HHT was fine and on par with my sharper razors but on my face it had considerable tugging. Because of this it required more effort and the feel wasn’t that comfortable.

The good.
Zero nicks or cuts. Maybe it is due to the larger heavier blade (?), this was a very close shave. It felt like it was able to reach deeper than my other razors. The end result feels very good. It was able to do a very good job on my thicker chin whiskers.

I think if I can go back and work the bevel more, maybe with a slightly rougher stone, I can pick up the sharpness. That’s the only thing this razor is lacking.
 
So, bevel setting on a SG20 as I said is technique driven, you need to raise a bit of slurry and use a little pressure.

But it sounds like you are close and you bevel is set or nearly fully set.

There are a lot of random scratches on the bevel, which could be from finishing on water on the Jnat. You should raise a slurry a bit thicker than milk and it should remove all the stria and leave a stria less, hazy finish.

If it will not raise slurry easily, it may be a hard stone and can make a good finisher with a Nagura. If you do not have Nagura start with a Tenjyou and finish on diamond slurry, down the road a matching Tomo Nagura.

First remove all the stria from the bevel for a uniform sandblast, Kasumi finish. On hard Jnats, I always finish on thin well worked slurry, never on water only.

So, what is that Jnat. Surgical Black usually refers to a hard black Arkansas and Ozuku is a mine. Is it an Ozuku Asagi or a black Ark?
 
So, bevel setting on a SG20 as I said is technique driven, you need to raise a bit of slurry and use a little pressure.

But it sounds like you are close and you bevel is set or nearly fully set.

There are a lot of random scratches on the bevel, which could be from finishing on water on the Jnat. You should raise a slurry a bit thicker than milk and it should remove all the stria and leave a stria less, hazy finish.

If it will not raise slurry easily, it may be a hard stone and can make a good finisher with a Nagura. If you do not have Nagura start with a Tenjyou and finish on diamond slurry, down the road a matching Tomo Nagura.

First remove all the stria from the bevel for a uniform sandblast, Kasumi finish. On hard Jnats, I always finish on thin well worked slurry, never on water only.

So, what is that Jnat. Surgical Black usually refers to a hard black Arkansas and Ozuku is a mine. Is it an Ozuku Asagi or a black Ark?

“Surgical black Ozuku” is a tongue in cheek reference to this video by Keith V. Johnson:
I saw that video and I absolutely had to have an Ozuku. I managed to pick one up that after much cleaning and abrading turned out to look very much like the one in that video.
It does generate decent slurry with a small diamond plate.

Thanks again for the advice. I will try this again and end with a thin slurry, and not go to straight water. FWIW, it leaves a bright finish, not a kasumi finish. Even in the previously posted images the Ozuku finish is brighter than the SG20K finish and the 20K is a mirror polish. I really like this stone and I got it for a steal.

I have been looking for a nagura set. Unfortunately they have been going for quite a pretty penny. I’m still on the hunt.

In contrast the SG20K was not generating much slurry. My 8x3 150/600 diamond plate was struggling to do much of anything. This stone comes with a 400 grit nagura for generating slurry and it worked ok when it was new. This stone has gotten harder and more resistant to abrasion over the last few years. I have a 80 grit diamond plate that I know will work but I will need to smooth out the DEEP scratches it leaves after.
 
Years ago, when I first bought my SG20, I was not happy with the finish it produced, and neither side was flat.

I finally lapped it flat with a 140 diamond plate under running water, several times removing a pencil grid, until it would remove a new grid in less than 10 laps.

It was very hard. After lapping it was a completely different stone, cut fast and left a mirror bevel.
 
Years ago, when I first bought my SG20, I was not happy with the finish it produced, and neither side was flat.

I finally lapped it flat with a 140 diamond plate under running water, several times removing a pencil grid, until it would remove a new grid in less than 10 laps.

It was very hard. After lapping it was a completely different stone, cut fast and left a mirror bevel.
That’s exactly my biggest gripe with Sigma Power. Great stones but they arrive out of flat and they always need a lot of the surface removed before they start acting right.

It would be nice if stones arrived pre-lapped and edges nicely chamfered…… but this is unfortunately a race to the bottom. There is a reason why the $20 Chinese stones outsell a $27 King.

I think I am going to take the Parker razor to a black Ark then finish on the Ozuku with a light slurry. There should t be any question about sharpness then. Got a busy week so it might be a few days before I can get back to it.
 
That’s exactly my biggest gripe with Sigma Power. Great stones but they arrive out of flat and they always need a lot of the surface removed before they start acting right.

It would be nice if stones arrived pre-lapped and edges nicely chamfered…… but this is unfortunately a race to the bottom. There is a reason why the $20 Chinese stones outsell a $27 King.

I think I am going to take the Parker razor to a black Ark then finish on the Ozuku with a light slurry. There should t be any question about sharpness then. Got a busy week so it might be a few days before I can get back to it.
If your JNAT is good, you should be able to go from bevel set to finish quite fast. A 6k as a starting point should get you there easier. I am not sure if the Arkansas is adding too much for you here.
It is fun to experiment though.
 
If your JNAT is good, you should be able to go from bevel set to finish quite fast. A 6k as a starting point should get you there easier. I am not sure if the Arkansas is adding too much for you here.
It is fun to experiment though.
I need to get on your level with 4 JNATs, one of them being a lvl5 Nakayama. If only I had a nice 8x3 Nakayama Asagi, then, THEN, I could have something to compare my Ozuku with!
 
I need to get on your level with 4 JNATs, one of them being a lvl5 Nakayama. If only I had a nice 8x3 Nakayama Asagi, then, THEN, I could have something to compare my Ozuku with!
I had my Shobudani for almost 10 years before I got any other JNAT'S. I did not know I had a grate stone before I got something to compare it to. You might have a stellar stone already. You just need some time with it. You can always let someone test drive it for you to get a second opinion.
 
A hard ark is a finishing stone or a post-finishing stone. Using it before a finishing stone is not something that should be done.
 
So round 2 with the Parker, SG20K, and Ozuku.

I spent quite a bit of time giving the SG20K it’s own shave. 150 and 600 grit diamond plate, then a 400 Sigma Power, and last the Ozuku to smooth both. Still difficult to get much slurry. Started with a thin slurry which quickly disappeared but the stone still felt better than before and swarf indicated that it was cutting better. Did a second set on water only.
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Next was the Ozuku with slurry. I was pretty skeptical that finishing on slurry and not just water would improve the edge….
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Did one long set, added a little water twice, finished on medium slurry. When I was done and tested it on my arm hair it was evident the sharpness was night and day improved. It was a smidge better than my previous best which was on a black Ark. After stropping on leather the edge was screaming. Thank you for that, @H Brad Boonshaft. I would not have tried that had you not suggested it.

I shaved with it. Smoothness was on par for the most part with my other razor, Manaslu. Some areas, like going against the grain on my neck, was wonderful, effortless, and smooth. I’ve still got a long ways to go but this was a great shave and the razor felt good.
 
This thread is pretty much turning into a blog post of my journey into honing straight razors…… I took the JNAT train goin anywhere. Speaking of. You know they don’t call them JNAT’s in Japan. They use the metric system here too. They have no idea what a 8x3x1 is. They are called a Royale with cheese here.

Got a new JNAT, an old Nakayam Maruka. It’s pretty bad *** and was begging for a shoot out against my other finishers. I’ll be your huckleberry.

Surgical Black Ozuku vs. Nakayama Maruka vs. Hard Black Ark vs. Dan’s Blue Black Ark. winner takes all (my money).

Ok. Started with a Rinnet SR I got recently. I killed the edge real good so that I could polish it up without losing a finger. It has a nice thin grind.
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Started with a Sigma Power ceramic 1K on soapy water. This is a crazy thirsty stone and wanted to try the soapy water to see if it helped and it did work quite well. This is also a very fast stone which I wanted because the edge was totally gone. With light pressure it made fast work and got the edge to readily cut arm hair.
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From there I went to my Sigma 6K and also used soapy water.
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Interestingly, this did not seem to improve the edge at all, not for cutting arm hair, and not in the magnifier images. Maybe this needs to use slurry or maybe the 1K edge is really good. Maybe I’m still in need of a good mid-range stone.
 

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Onto to my newest favorite pre-finisher, the Suehiro 20K.
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Now I understand why some describe this as “harsh” and I now would have to agree. That said, it does make razors very sharp, and has a stark improvement in cutting arm hair. I think this is a good base for jumping to…..

The Ozuku vs the Nakayama.

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Both on slurry. Can you see an ever-so-slight difference in the bead blast pattern?
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From there we are onto the final battle, the Hard Black Ark vs. the Blue Black Ark.

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Now there are a few differences here. The Black is burnished a little better. The Blue Black is a little denser and harder. The Black is working with the edge coming off the Nakayama. The Blue Black is working the edge coming off the Black.
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I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it certainly appears that surface prep is king with Arks as finishers.
 
This thread is pretty much turning into a blog post of my journey into honing straight razors…… I took the JNAT train goin anywhere. Speaking of. You know they don’t call them JNAT’s in Japan. They use the metric system here too. They have no idea what a 8x3x1 is. They are called a Royale with cheese here.

Got a new JNAT, an old Nakayam Maruka. It’s pretty bad *** and was begging for a shoot out against my other finishers. I’ll be your huckleberry.

Surgical Black Ozuku vs. Nakayama Maruka vs. Hard Black Ark vs. Dan’s Blue Black Ark. winner takes all (my money).

Ok. Started with a Rinnet SR I got recently. I killed the edge real good so that I could polish it up without losing a finger. It has a nice thin grind.
Check out the big brains on Brad!!!
 
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