What did you hone today?

[shakin_jake]

Jake tries his hand at using a J-Nat

I just bought a J-Nat...here it is before lapping


If you'll notice, there's a bit of an inclusion (that's what I'm calling it, correct me if I'm wrong) in the lower left hand corner, looking like a scratch from the side terminating into a gouge of sorts. the gouge looks insignificant from this photo but I lapped it for 40 minutes last night and thought I had it licked. There was a small dimple still there when I honed with it Wednesday, but I wanted to hone a razor on this new stone so I worked around the dimple, and FWIW, that gouge was a few mm's in depth when I started. I used my 350/600 Duo Sharp DMT for lapping. What would have worked better would have been an extra coarse DMT but I used what I have

Some weeks back I corrected the bevel on the razor I'm using for this honing exercise using a Cretan hone. I had enough slurry let over from another razor I didn't want to waste so I (again) corrected the bevels on the 6/8 Worcester you see here I picked up from an ebay auction probably 3 mionths ago...just never got around to honing it. I did at the time of recieving it, cleaned it up a bit using my buffer set up. here it is-


In this progression I basically did a dilucot on this 40X150mm Les Latnueses, and it went pretty fast, seeing how the bevel was originally corrected with a Cretan hone, so I had a nice bevel to start out with. then I went on to my new J-Nat, an Ozuku Asagi-

The slurry stone (AKA Nagura) in the foreground is a piece of Ozuko Asagi, and since it is from the same strata, it's called a tomo nagura (for those new to this)

this nagura easily made plenty of slurry. I kept it wet like I would using a coticule to hone with. Strokes used were 1/2 strokes and X's...swaying X's. I kept away from the dimple, and worth noting...I was in such a rush to lap this stone the other night, I forgot to bevel the sides

I should mention, I polished this stone after lapping it. From memory, I lapped it with a coticule for a bit then moved on to using one of the two pieces of nagura that came with the stone

Anyways, just like honing on coticule, I could feel the edge coming around after a bit so started doing major dilutions, rinising away 40% of the slurry, keeping it wet while honing and it was undercutting very nicely. Eventually I rinsed away all of the slurry and honed on water only for a bit. Now here was the real tell the razor was ready...the blade was totally sticking to the hone while honing on straight water. it sucked right up. All that was left to do was to strop

I did 60 laps each linen and leather and didn't do an HHT until after the strops. here's the pleasant part...I got HHT4 consistently, easily on all parts of the blade (heel, toe and inbetween). The hair I'm using from HHT is my own and at 55 years of age, my hair has turned fairly thin, compared to other sources of hair I've used

how'd it shave?...I shaved immediately after honing/stropping and the shave was a real pleasure. I could tell right away this edge was one of the sharpest edges I have ever honed on natural stone. it felt close and it was close. I was ending up with BBS on my neck (normally my toughest area to shave BBS) shaving WTG, and I ran my hand over this area ATG and it was BBS

Needless to say I'm pretty stoked with the edge I got from finishing with this J-Nat. That said, I'm surprised to recieve a stone with the defects mine has. I call them defects, the inclusion or whatever you want to call the scratch and gouge in the surface. So I'm wondering...is this common to recieve a stone in this condition from J-Nat resellers? I wrote the vendor I bought the stone from, mentioning that the defects were never mentioned in the sales description and have yet to hear back from him. Again, I'm pleased with the edge I got but I feel indifferent about buying a stone w/o the knowledge of said defects before hand (prior to the sale)


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[hig789]

#14 Jose Lopez German Palmera.
Spyderco Delica
Spyderco Tenacious

[life2short1971]

Sorry to hear about the scratch Jake. I am sure it was just an oversight as he usually is very good about noting that stuff and I see it was there when you bought it. He is on vacation from the 14th to the 29th and likely out of country so it may be a while before he contacts you but I am sure he will.

[shakin_jake]

Sorry to hear about the scratch Jake. I am sure it was just an oversight as he usually is very good about noting that stuff and I see it was there when you bought it. He is on vacation from the 14th to the 29th and likely out of country so it may be a while before he contacts you but I am sure he will.

~~~that explains why my emails have not been returned


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[shakin_jake]

Wanted to see how the J-Nat I just acquired would do with a half hollow. the one above has been sitting unused in one of my razor rolls for a long time, hence some micro chipping I had to take care of first

Out came my LPB bout for bevel correction, then it was on to a slice of Les Lat for a full dilucot. Then it was time for the Ozuko Asagi...I slurried it up with the tomo nagura, lighter than yesterday's and worked it a while, then felt I needed to refresh the slurry so I rinsed it all and re-slurried, making the nagura slurry milkier and did a series of 1/2, X's, back and forth keeping it wet til I felt it come around, and this sensation just like my coticule experience, tells me, when it's done it's done, so I stopped and rinsed (stone and razor totally) and went to straight water...the blade really sucked up to the stone's surface, just like the night before. I did maybe 10, 15 laps on water and called it done

Onto my strop....60 laps each linen and leather, *then* I performed a hanging hair test...guess what?, a solid HHT4

I think I found my finishing stone

I haven't shaved with this particular razor and probably wont as I want to give it to someone I know that is just starting out with straights but the shave I had last night with the Worcester full hollow, as sharp as it was, I'm going to have to get used to this new edge and by that I mean I can discern how the blade feels coming off the J-Nat. It's a good edge and quite sharp but it's a tad harsher than a coti edge, almost feels like a cross between a razor honed on lapping film finished w/Cr0x and a natural stone like a coticule, but not as smooth

For sure I like the little extra kick in sharpeness over the coticule but it does not feel (the one razor I've shaved with) as comfortable as a coti edge. Of course, there's probably nuthin that feels as comfortable shaving as a coticule honed razor, but I digress


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[shakin_jake]

~~~FYI, just stropped this razor for tonight's (this mornings shave=:-)...after stropping i checked HHT...Still HHT4...mebbe that's not unusual, as I never recheck HHT after shaving with a razor but I wanted to and did, and was rather happily surprised to see HHT4, again


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[shakin_jake]

I'm talking about the 6/8 Worcester full hollow...I haven't shaved in 2 + days


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[Doc226]

F.A. Koch & Co Faultless with faux tortoise scales.
JNAT with full nagura progression.

[paco664]

honed this kami i made for otto...

set bevel on a DMT then coti'd it into submission and finished it on a JNAT..... it gave me a very nice shave but i need to rehone it... it doesn't feel as smooth as i would like....

anyway....

[Doc226]

Just finished this guy, JNAT, full nagura progression

[Legion]

Just spent some time on my problem Swede, the one with the extra hard steel. It was already shave ready but I just knew that it had more to give with some extra TLC.

50x laps water on La Verte, 30x laps water + a drop of dish soap, 25x laps balsa and CrOx, 30x laps genuine linen, 50x laps kangaroo.

By the HHT results I may have created a lightsabre.

[shakin_jake]

This one looks like it's seen better days, no?

here, this side is rustier-

good candidate for some wheel magic

lookin better?

all right...I'm going to keep this one on natural stones cause I'm Jake like that
starting with my Cretan hone-

the more I use it, the more I like the Cretan, but I only use it for bevel correction...and this razor had more than a few micro chips which this Cretan hone easily did away with, and left a nice smooth edge, for further refinement on coticule-

I used two of my coticules. First the La Petit Blanc bout to round out the bevel correction then on to les Latnueses for a full dilucot. FWIW I rubbed both together to create slurry for each stone

For the finish hone work I went to my one and only J-Nat...Ozuku Asagi-


the nagura (slurry stone) I used is the one you see...a piece of rock from the same strata which builds slurry easily and I hone on this J-Nat just like I hone on coticule. I keep the slurry wet, use 1/2 strokes, x strokes, swaying X's and I feel the same sensation that I get with my coticules when I know it's done...the edge just comes around. It's a feeling more than anything. What I feel where the edge is at through the handle of the razor on top of the stone. the transmission is clear...it says "hey!, I'm done now, I'm there...you can quit honing"=:-)

FWIW, I checked the edge off the coticule (les lat) and all I got was HHT2. I checekd the edge again off the J-Nat and I got HHT3 w/persuasion, but once I stropped it (60 linen, 60 leather), it was solid HHT4 all up and down the edge, one end to the other. It'd cut the hair, plonk, then I moved an inch of hair shaft up and cut it again, one stroke, bam, move another inch of hair over the edge in another spot on the blade and same deal, one stroke, the hair falls in two, but I use some force, it's not HHT5 it's HHT4 but again and again and again

i've yet to shave with it. I'll prolly get around to that later this afternoon


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[Doc226]

Just finished this TI LeGrelot. It had a coticule edge. I killed that on glass and set the bevel on my "new" Botan bevel setter. Brought her through a full nagura progression. Had suction on water alone like never before.

Pics is the Botan



Pics of the razor


Shave to come.

[noahpictures]

Paul Mullenberg (Solingen) on lapping film.

[Raithskar]

My Puma 5/8 Spanish point. Set the bevel and did dilutions on my La Dress Bout, and finished on my new Vintage combo. Best edge I have ever felt off a coticule bar none!

[Wid]

Did a Crown and Sword I had laying around for a while. Started on a worn out 325 then to a Chosera 1K to a La Grise, full diluticot. From there spent some time on Shoubudani Mizu Asagi with a light slurry then to a Trans Black Arkansas.

[chuckr9]

Boker Red Injun 5/8 honed with lapping film progression 12u 9u 5u 3u 1u 0.3u and final on Le Petite Blance coticule with mineral oil (got to use the rocks for something!)

[Disburden]

1u lapping film is 15-16K and .3 is near 30K level, why would you go to a coticule after that, it seems backwards?

[Doc226]

1u lapping film is 15-16K and .3 is near 30K level, why would you go to a coticule after that, it seems backwards?

Smooth out the edge?

[Obiwan]

5/8 Bengal. DMT, vintage combo coticule, then finished on Les Lat hybrid. A very smooth shave for me today.