Help Shopping for Natural Stones!?? Cheap though!

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daveb said:
I get the sense that you don't want to hear it and are not going to listen to it but I'll echo what the smart kids have said above. Synthetic. You would be much better served with even a Bestor 1200 (approx $50) than dropping a hundred on an unknown Jnat.

My daddy used to tell me I had champagne tastes with a beer budget. Are we related?
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don't bother with cheap natural unless you enjoy wasting your money.

daveb and i had the same dad apparently.
 
daveb said:
Home Depot is running a special on natural stones right now.....
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The clay based pavers we used on our patio in Alicante left about a 800-1200 grit edge. They sure soak up water and get very muddy. All kinds of inclusions though. Still better than a beston 500. :rofl2: I'll try to sharpen with about anything I can find laying around, just because.
 
and you know I may regret it, but it's only $27 and who knows this could be a steal. we shall see.

I talked with Shinichi at Watanabe and he helped me out a Lot! Gave me a Amasuka Torato suggestion for finishing and a AI 1000 for sharpening, and I would have bought it but it was going to be over $130 total. The Amasuka Torato was only $30 or so, but the shipping was like $55. He suggested the AI 1000 since I didn't have the money to invest in a real Natural Sharpening stone. He definitely was the Best to work with, and i'll definitely be back in the next couple months to buy his suggestions, but for now we'll try out this Binsui Amasuka.
 
K813zra said:
The clay based pavers we used on our patio in Alicante left about a 800-1200 grit edge. They sure soak up water and get very muddy. All kinds of inclusions though. Still better than a beston 500. :rofl2: I'll try to sharpen with about anything I can find laying around, just because.
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haha really!?
 
K813zra said:
The clay based pavers we used on our patio in Alicante left about a 800-1200 grit edge. They sure soak up water and get very muddy. All kinds of inclusions though. Still better than a beston 500. :rofl2: I'll try to sharpen with about anything I can find laying around, just because.
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Ok so Im not the only crazy person, btw, i found a place called "Whetstone Island" in Ontario, I want ti make a trip there, if not for finding whetstones atleast bragging rights to say I shaprened a knife on whetstone island with a whetstone.
 
TEWNCfarms said:
haha really!?
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Yeah, I have tried things like slate too. But the slate from the old barn really does not seem to 'cut' so much as burnish. Works okay with nagura slurry. Maybe that makes me a goober.

Btw if you want to try a cheap natural and are not too particular about the country it comes from then check out a Belgian blue whetstone. You can get an 8x2 for about $40 and they are fairly decent. Everyone always goes directly to J-nats but there are all kinds of stones out there. Many of which are more typically used for razors though. Anyway, that just crossed my mind. Worth a look anyway.

Xenif said:
Ok so Im not the only crazy person, btw, i found a place called "Whetstone Island" in Ontario, I want ti make a trip there, if not for finding whetstones atleast bragging rights to say I shaprened a knife on whetstone island with a whetstone.
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Hah, well, I do goofy things I guess. Not my idea though, I saw it on youtube ages ago and said to myself "I have some of those from a project". My brother in-law is a tile guy so I get all kinds of leftover ceramic tiles, flooring etc.

Whestsone Island sounds interesting.
 
K813zra said:
Yeah, I have tried things like slate too. But the slate from the old barn really does not seem to 'cut' so much as burnish. Works okay with nagura slurry. Maybe that makes me a goober.

Btw if you want to try a cheap natural and are not too particular about the country it comes from then check out a Belgian blue whetstone. You can get an 8x2 for about $40 and they are fairly decent. Everyone always goes directly to J-nats but there are all kinds of stones out there. Many of which are more typically used for razors though. Anyway, that just crossed my mind. Worth a look anyway.



Hah, well, I do goofy things I guess. Not my idea though, I saw it on youtube ages ago and said to myself "I have some of those from a project". My brother in-law is a tile guy so I get all kinds of leftover ceramic tiles, flooring etc.

Whestsone Island sounds interesting.
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Awesome I appreciate that! Yeah I’m not really to set on it being Just a Japanese stone, I’ve thought about trying Arkansas stone too... any other stones you could suggest? And do you know the grit roughly of a Belgian blue? And I mean I won’t be buying any anytime soon since I bought that binsui last night, set my alarm for 2:20am and had a bidding war to win it!
 
TEWNCfarms said:
and you know I may regret it, but it's only $27 and who knows this could be a steal. we shall see.

I talked with Shinichi at Watanabe and he helped me out a Lot! Gave me a Amasuka Torato suggestion for finishing and a AI 1000 for sharpening, and I would have bought it but it was going to be over $130 total. The Amasuka Torato was only $30 or so, but the shipping was like $55. He suggested the AI 1000 since I didn't have the money to invest in a real Natural Sharpening stone. He definitely was the Best to work with, and i'll definitely be back in the next couple months to buy his suggestions, but for now we'll try out this Binsui Amasuka.
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You realize that for just a few dollars more than you just wasted on this natural stone you could have bought the Shapton 1000 - which is the same stone as the AI 1000?
But why buy smart when you can buy twice...

On Belgian stones... there's blue (sometimes abbreviated as BBW, Belgian Blue Whetstone) and yellow (also referred to as coticule)... but especially the prices on the yellow ones have become quite high because they're popular in the shaving community. The blue ones are usually described as giving a ~4000 grit finish, but I'd advise you to read up on coticule's before buying if you're interested in that sort of thing; there are some good websites that explain the differences, how they work, etc.
You can't directly compare them to synthethics.
 
TEWNCfarms said:
and you know I may regret it, but it's only $27 and who knows this could be a steal. we shall see.

I talked with Shinichi at Watanabe and he helped me out a Lot! Gave me a Amasuka Torato suggestion for finishing and a AI 1000 for sharpening, and I would have bought it but it was going to be over $130 total. The Amasuka Torato was only $30 or so, but the shipping was like $55. He suggested the AI 1000 since I didn't have the money to invest in a real Natural Sharpening stone. He definitely was the Best to work with, and i'll definitely be back in the next couple months to buy his suggestions, but for now we'll try out this Binsui Amasuka.
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I missed this post.

While people can be Debby downers and I like my Amakusa what is being said is not without merit. Sin has stones of known quality, even the Amakusa. However those ones you find in plastic wrap at tool shops are often hard, slow, do not auto slurry and have loads of inclusions. Actually, all Amakusa that I have ever used have inclusions. They are just soft and don't seem to matter.

Anyway, Amakusa can be good stones if you know what you are getting into and you have reasonable expectations. Binsui and Ikarashi too.
 
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