Now i’m Thinking about an 8k! 8 K finisher! You have set the bar high for us mortals... something to shoot for! I wasn’t being persistent in my questioning just wanted to make sure we are talking about he same stone. Yep coe stones are same as mine. I wasn’t aware there was a name change, I only got mine in January/ February. I’m disappointed you didn’t like the now dota creek....always good to hear a pro opinion on these things.... I ended up finishing a few edges on the ultra fine ( now gray polisher), which previously was giving me issues as a finisher. But revisited today and got fine edges ... for me.
This is a past acquisition, but it has such an interesting story behind it, I thought that I’d post it. I bought this 60-cut (190 x 70mm) at auction, mostly because of the cool paulownia wood cover that a previous owner made for it (fits perfectly btw, obviously made to fit). It sold cheap. It’s on a base that’s hand fitted to the stone which isn’t too unusual. The auction images showed a pale stone, but we all know how accurate auction images of stones are and this was no exception. The color is actually a yellowish-greenish brown, kind of a baby cr@p brown! But that’s where the ugly stops, it’s extremely pure, no lines, no goma, no cracks, nothing but pure stone. And as I began testing it, I understood why the previous owner made a cover - no doubt to keep anything from being dropped on it and damaging it. There’s a tiny chip in one end so maybe the cover was made as a result of this chip? It’s super fine and one of the best razor finishers that I have. But wait, there’s more! I’d been using the stone and glued the lid back where the iron tacks had rusted away, no doubt from the cover being replaced on a damp stone. After a honing session I was rinsing the stone off and noticed a dark smudge on the end of the stone and wondered if I hadn’t cleaned it well when I got it. Nope, that ‘smudge’ is the remains of a vintage maru-ka stamp, or ‘circle Ka’ the symbol that Kato san, who operated the Nakayama mine, placed on the best of the best Nakayama stones. The seller had missed it too. Events like this make up for the duds that occasionally happen when you buy used stones at auction or flea markets, etc and don’t really know what they are when you buy them.
I picked up a few rocks road side while on a recent trip and finally got one of them cut. I believe it is a schist and it resembles a Norwegian Ragstone that I have. Still experimenting with it, it isn't a finisher but it is pretty. I'll shoot better pics or a short video in the near future. Backside, uncut as found. Backside, wet. Face, dry. Face, wet. I do have a few others to cut and test and will post as those are ready. The one below was a surprise. Not from my roadtrip, it has been in my basement for 10 years or more. I'll post about it another time as well.
Some low hanging estate sale fruit this morning. A boxed and labeled Washita and a trans ark pen knife stone. Also a big brick of a Hindostan looking stone. 8 x 2.5 x 1.5 hunk of stone with nice layering. Being photo bombed by a Rubberset 400-4 that followed everything home
Some luck and a won auction this morning. One of the last two that I received is a very pretty, probably Nakayama (black knobby sparkling skin on one corner) with a perfect complexion. It’s likely a shallower layer like akepin and soft, but surprisingly fine. My quick Gold Dollar edge was entirely acceptable and I think that more can be coaxed from it. Pure as all get out, no lines, goma, sparklies, su, etc. You can see the pink from iro bands peeking through on the left. The other one has some layer cracking and while stable, that means that it isn’t worth much unless I try to remediate them. Decisions to be made.... The other two images are the ones from this morning. They look decent but as always I’d bet they’re a bit less colorful ‘in person’ and dry. Fingers crossed!
This stone is a past acquisition too, also with an interesting twist that the jnat folks might like. This is a Narutaki scalpel hone. Alex Gilmore picked it up during a visit to one of the wholesalers while on a trip to Japan. The wholesaler said he never cut them anymore until he had enough orders to cut up several. They just sliced a regular bench stone into narrow stones. Since scalpels are pretty much all disposable these days, there may be no more scalpel hones ‘made’. There’s nothing unusual about it except its narrow width. If your blade is 1” long it’s perfect. Why not use a ‘regular’ stone? Jnat cost goes up exponentially with size all other factors being equal, and the buyers didn’t want to pay 3, 4, 5x as much for stone that they couldn’t use. It will hone up a razor well enough, but isn’t a go-to stone except for wonky razors because of the narrow width. You’d think that it might be better for finishing razors as it is a scalpel hone, but if you think about it, all the real ‘users’ of the edge are (hopefully) sedated.
Hello Folks I'm new to the forum and pretty new to straight shaving (1o shaves maybe?) but it's getting better! However, my razors are now not shave ready any longer so I need to learn honing and stropping. I was lucky to find a nice Thuringian on eBay and bought it. Then I also found a nice (*I hope) Jnat on www.thejapanstone.com and then..! My dad said he had a stone from when HE was learning straight shaving (he never mastered it so gave up) - he said he bought it from a tool shop in London in the 1980s, a shop which specialized in chisels I believe (sadly this specialize shop no longer exists) It seems to feel very nice - it was badly scratched and so was the Thuringian so I lapped them both with my 600 grit Atoma diamond plate -they seem to have come out nicely, I also chamfered the edges as there were a couple of chips which could really screw up a razor... seems to have worked. I also bought as I said, an Atoma 600 diamond plate for lapping the stones, and also Naniwa Super Stones, 1K, 5K and 10K (I'm also sharpening kitchen knives, Japanese style mostly) Anyway, thought I'd upload a few pics for you fine gentleman to peruse! Tell me what you think - anyone got any idea what kind of stone the last one is? (last 3 pics are my dad's stone) - it was £87.90 in the 1980s - pretty expensive really!
It’s a coticule, you’re showing the coarse Belgian Blue Whetstone side. Show us the yellow side. Likely a very nice stone! And nice to have from your dad - heirloom stone.
Yes, the yellow side is considered by most to be finer and faster. You might be able to use the blue side, some are good some less so. The blue side was backing for the yellow side. Look sort of like this?
Yours may look a lot more uniform once it’s lapped. Two new jnats in, both test very well. The right hand one may get a little more lapping, but the edge on a Gold Dollar was quite good. The coti above also arrived yesterday after 40 days from Belgium, lol. I honed up an almost shave ready razor under running water, 20 circles/ellipses and 20 straight strokes, HHT was very good and the shave this morning was very smooth. Not as good as the best jnat edges but I’m not a coti person (yet) and probably a good ways off from getting the best from it. It’s kosher and hard, seems to have a lot of potential.
Not really a hone mail call, but still edge maintenance. All 3x11 magnetic mount. 3 balsa strops 1 denim 1 nanocloth on glass 1 roo (very smooth!) CBN emulsion sprays .5 .25 .1 micron