Hello all,
I figured it was about time to post some of my more recent observations regarding honing on my nakayama. A while back, I purchased another honzan slurry stone from JimR along with a Mejiro nagura. The Mejiro is really a nice looking stone, but it is unlike any other that I've used. It's very soft, chalky, and dries almost immediately after wetting the stone. It must be very porous, so it's absorbing the water I presume.
I should firstly mention that I am using the methods of honing on a Japanese natural as desribed by JimR
http://coticule.be/japanese-hones-a-traditional-approach.html. VERY useful information. If you have a Japanese natural or are looking into getting one, this is a must read.
I've used the Mejiro to create a slurry on my nakayama after a couple of points in a progression. I've used it after a coticule or 8k norton, and it very easily replaces the coticule or 8k scratches with a very uniform hazy bevel. The same was done after my DMT 1200, but this obviously took a bit more time. I honestly don't remember how many laps, but it was a reasonable number, nothing in excess of 100-200. (PLEASE don't quote on that number, as I don't remember how many it took, that was merely a guess. All I remember is that it didn't take more than 10-15 minutes.) Jim stresses the importance of ensuring the entire length of the bevel has the same uniform haze to it. I didn`t finish with the Mejiro slurry until I had achieved this uniform haziness along the entire bevel.
After this, I move to a slurry created with a pure honzan stone. This slurry takes a lot longer to raise than using the nagura. The honzan slurry stone, and my nakayama itself, are very hard stones, so it`s substantially harder to raise the slurry. One technique that I`ve tried only recently (after reading a suggestion by Bart) is to tilt the slurry stone to help raise a slurry. This helped a lot, but still takes a fair bit of rubbing to achieve that 2% milk-like consistency that is required. After the honzan slurry is raised, I hone away! It usually takes me about 100-200 strokes until the slurry starts to thicken and get kind of pastey. I`ve tried just finishing at this point, and I`ve also tried refreshing the slurry and repeating the process again until it is once again pastey. I`ve gotten steller results either way, although I think the times I`ve refreshed I`ve gotten slightly sharper edges. I think it depends entirely on your particular stone. But either way, I do not dilute and simply finish on the slurry. (PLEASE note that these principles and techniques do not transfer over to coticules. They may not even necessarily transfer to other Japanese stones as there is a lot of variation among them.)
If I did my above steps correctly, I`m left with one of the most beautiful looking bevels! I know looks aren`t everything, but it has a really nice even shiney haze to it. No appearance of scratches at all. After I strop it on linen then leather, the edges it leaves are a hair assassin. Literally HHT-5 (if I do it all correctly obviously). The hair will touch the edge and just fall silently, no popping at all, just a very clean cut. Shaving with such an edge is a bit different than with a coticule edge, as I do find it a bit less forgiving. But it also seems to cut the hair a bit more effortlessly. I`m not going to say that one edge is better than the other, just that they`re different. Apples and oranges.
I`ve recently ordered 2 more naguras to add to my collection: a Botan and a Tenjou. The Botan is a courser nagura, and more appropriate to use before the Tenjou or Mejiro slurry (from what I`ve read, absolutley no first hand experience!). The Tenjou is supposed to be the same fineness as the Mejiro, but it has a cool stripey look to it.
: I`ve been trying to acquire a Koma nagura, the finest of them, the use as an intermediate step between the Mejiro (or Tenjou) slurry and the honzan slurry. But I`ve been doing just fine without that step for now, perhaps just spending a little more time on the final slurry that I would have to if I had the Koma.
Anyways, thanks for enduring that long post! Japanese naturals are indeed very interesting, but I have no intention of acquiring another anytime soon. I quite like the idea of having one stone and just using different slurries on it as a progression. I like my Nakayama, it`s a nice hard one and the perfect dimensions for me, roughly 18cm x 4cm. I`m not abandoning my coticules anytime soon (not to worry!), but I am definitely enjoying using my nakayama in ways other than just with water as a final polish.
Happy Honing!
Dave
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