In my previous tries I'd been using my old, rather cheap, Diamond plate. It's a multi duty hone--I use it for lapping, for serious bevel correction, and for some knives.
But the slurry never really felt right-it was too rich, too coarse--and it was a huge PITA to deal with the big plate. But I wanted to give it a better try, so when I saw this little beauty in my local home center, I picked it up.
It's a Japanese 1000 grit plate, about 2"x1", and 1/4" thick. The back and sides are plastic lined for comfortable holding. It's made for sharpening in hard to reach places, but I figured it'd make a heck of a diamond nagura.
So I tested it out just ina quick visiual comparison with my best Tomonagura--the one given to me by my barber, a hard, smooth stone.
Here's the hone I used: a Maruoyama Kamisorito.
It's a hard, dark stone, a little brittle.
I started with the tomonagura.
That's slurry made in about 60 seconds, no pressure.
Washed the stone, then tried the diamond nagura.
20 seconds, no pressure. See how thick that is? how dark? I feel like it would be a very fast slurry, but I fear that it wouldn't break down well. I'll see when I finally try some real honing, I guess, but here's where I hesitate...
Look at that. That white is ALL scratches...the surface of this hone is toast. I would really hesitate to do that to a multi-hundred dollar finishing hone.
Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the hone right before, in the same light, but here's an old one:
Dark, as you can see, with some faint scratches.
I don't necessarily think that these scratches will make for bad honing, but I do think it causes unnecessary trauma and excessive wear on the hone's surface. Small Form Honzan hones have two advantages, as I can see, over the diamond plate. First, the small form honzan adds to the slurry from the base stone, reducing wear on a potentially VERY expensive hone. And second, it's a very very fine stone, so it won't be digging deep gouges in your hone's surface when you use it.
The reason I don't like this, apart from the ugly look of it, is that those scratches represent fracture points--as you hone your razor, the raised peaks between the scratches can break off in big chunks, potentially damaging the fine edge you've been working for all this time. At the very least, it will result in some irregular slurry release, as those peaks break off during honing, and the fine honing we do with slurry in the final stages really does require complete control of the slurry.
Anyway, I'll still give the diamond nagura a try, but certainly not on any of my higher priced hones...
5 comments:
Thank you for very nice explanation !!! That what i was trying to tell to people every time they ask me about making slurry with dmt
Kip up the good work :)
Thanks for your kind words, JNS! I'm not really sure what kind of good work I do, I'm just muddling along.
Nice blog.
Diamond stones are great and fast to flatten stones.
Here flatten means to have a even level.
On the other side if you use a diamond stone surface roughness is coarse. So you must make the surface more fine with another Jnats.
Many do not understand it.
hey,
i made same experience, with tomo nagura i get much better results. i think the dmt slurry takes too much time to break up or doesnt even break.
I think we should thank Jim for using/abusing his stone. And at least in my opinion I won't be using a diamond Nagura on my finishing stones or any other stone for that matter. If its not broke don't fix it. Nagura stones have been used for a long time. I think its safe to say if the Togishi's have not found a better method, I'll stick with the natural Nagura stones(at least while there still available).
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