How do you store your naturals?

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catalystman80

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Hey guys,

For those JNAT owners, how do you store your naturals?

Was wondering if anyone knew someone in the states who can make good custom Kiri boxes at a reasonable price (~50 USD), or whether anyone has a better and/or more economical suggestions (doesn’t have to be Kiri box). Primary object is protection I suppose, but always welcomed if they are easy on the eyes :)

Thank you!

Josh
 
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I have stones hidden (and spread out) in every corner of the house where my wife is least likely to notice how many there are. There are usually a few on the counter, but most are on shelves or wire racks. I don't keep any that I care about in the garage - the temp swings out there can be brutal.

No source on a wood boxes -- The japanese kiri wood boxes are pretty fragile. I have a handful, but more than a few them got damaged in shipping to me.
 
I think you'll find most of us just have them spread through the house and tucked in out of the way places. Some have dedicated basements or shelving units. I use an old machinist's chest cause it looks nice and some shelves in the linen closet. The important thing, as Vinster points out, is not to leave them in places with extreme temperature fluctuations or where they'll get bumped or knocked off edges.
 
Oh yeah. I wasn't explicit. Keep them in a cool dry place. Think wine storage (for temp stability, not necessarily humidity).

I like to let them dry slowly and naturally after use to help prevent cracks or sudden catastrophic failure. Sometimes I'll stack them on a safe surface -- kind of like Jenga with the stones on their sides.
 
vinster said:
I have stones hidden (and spread out) in every corner of the house where my wife is least likely to notice how many there are. There are usually a few on the counter, but most are on shelves or wire racks. I don't keep any that I care about in the garage - the temp swings out there can be brutal.

No source on a wood boxes -- The japanese kiri wood boxes are pretty fragile. I have a handful, but more than a few them got damaged in shipping to me.
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LOL....I can see how that would be the case with your collection :D. I've been keeping them on a top shelf of one of my bookshelves in my home office. So safe enough both from any potential mechanical damage or temperature fluctuations :). Trying to think ahead for when my kid starts tearing up the house (he started walking this past week!)

tgfencer said:
I think you'll find most of us just have them spread through the house and tucked in out of the way places. Some have dedicated basements or shelving units. I use an old machinist's chest cause it looks nice and some shelves in the linen closet. The important thing, as Vinster points out, is not to leave them in places with extreme temperature fluctuations or where they'll get bumped or knocked off edges.
Click to expand...

Old machinist's chest sounds promising! Was actually thinking of getting a like a Husky drawer mobile work benches, and lining them up to customizable foam liners for cushioning. I may use it for my stones and anything sharp to project it from quickly growing 1 year old boy (and vice versa) :)
 
Old machinist's chest sounds promising! Was actually thinking of getting a like a Husky drawer mobile work benches said:
Yeah, nice old Gerstner. If you do use a chest or any enclosed type of storage, just make sure you let your stones dry out before you store them.
Click to expand...
 
Toilet tank for naturals, Taiwania pet coffin for synthetics.
 
vinster said:
Oh yeah. I wasn't explicit. Keep them in a cool dry place. Think wine storage (for temp stability, not necessarily humidity).

I like to let them dry slowly and naturally after use to help prevent cracks or sudden catastrophic failure. Sometimes I'll stack them on a safe surface -- kind of like Jenga with the stones on their sides.
Click to expand...

The wine storage was something that I'd just been considering to control for temp and humidity. I'm guessing that it's a bit excessive. My apartment doesn't really have too much of an issue here in Seattle but it's the top floor of an old brick building with single pane windows that gets crazy hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
 
I keep them in the drawer of an old kitchen table in my workshop (an otherwise unused room in my flat).
This table also is the place where I do the sharpening.
The room temperature is really stable, regardless of the season, so no problem there.
The real problem is that after one year down the rabbit hole the drawer starts to get too small [emoji23].
 
childermass said:
I keep them in the drawer of an old kitchen table in my workshop (an otherwise unused room in my flat).
This table also is the place where I do the sharpening.
The room temperature is really stable, regardless of the season, so no problem there.
The real problem is that after one year down the rabbit hole the drawer starts to get too small [emoji23].
Click to expand...

An unused kitchen drawer seems to work best for me.
 
Thanks for the input guys, I ordered a mobile husky work bench that I'm also planning to use as a straight razor honing station in my home office (thinking I'll mount an magnifying lamp :D ). I'll still do my knife sharpening in the kitchen, but I don't make much mess when doing my straights :)

Will probably put something together myself to keep the stones secure in the drawers, so will have to think about that....don't like the foam idea anymore as I want the stones to breath more (not that I would store them in there unless it's fully dry after use.
 
tgfencer said:
An equally interesting question, is where do you guys store all the knife and stone sized boxes you keep for that tune in the future you might need it for a sale? Drives my wife nuts...
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Stones are easy. I order USPS medium flat rate boxes from the USPS website. Knife boxes are a bigger issue, but I'm not as much a knife nut as many on here are. I have 2 large contractor garbage bags full of foam peanuts, bubble wrap, and other padding material in my garage. I need to post a few dozen stones on here one of these days when I find the time to catalog everything so hoping I have enough packing material for that.
 
vinster said:
Stones are easy. I order USPS medium flat rate boxes from the USPS website. Knife boxes are a bigger issue, but I'm not as much a knife nut as many on here are. I have 2 large contractor garbage bags full of foam peanuts, bubble wrap, and other padding material in my garage. I need to post a few dozen stones on here one of these days when I find the time to catalog everything so hoping I have enough packing material for that.
Click to expand...

That's generally what I use to. For what its worth, USPS also 'sells' long flat rate triangular boxes that are useful for knives, as long as the knife box isnt overly wide.
 
Mine sit leaned up against the wall behind the sink at work. I am thinking of moving them to a ventilated storage bin on a shelf under our knife shelves as my collection grows. Only have 3 right now.
 
I picked up a cheap humidor at Goodwill for $6. It only holds about 6-8 stones, but that could be a good way for me to try and discipline myself and keep the collection small. Wish me luck...
 
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I like to balance mine precariously all over the kitchen.
Typically sink bridges, top of olive oil bottles, cantilevering off counter and stove tops, I keep some in the oven to hold latent heat, and the thinner stones I keep in my toaster. I use the "evenly dry" excuse with my wife constantly, and its always fun when guests come because they think I'm completely whacked out. ;)
 
After seeing @valgard post of his stones I have to ask, do some of you ever forget what is what? Or is everything very well marked?
I just don't dig putting a sharpie and my chicken-scratch on the bottom of any stone... lol
 
aaamax said:
After seeing @valgard post of his stones I have to ask, do some of you ever forget what is what? Or is everything very well marked?
I just don't dig putting a sharpie and my chicken-scratch on the bottom of any stone... lol
Click to expand...

At the moment I have a number of stones I can manage, but of course this may change in the future [emoji4].
Nakato are pretty easy I think as they tend to look very distinct, at least the ones I got do.
My Finishers are mostly stored in individual boxes, so I can mark the box if I have to.
I only mark my Tomo Nagura so far. I use permanent marker for this, if you want to you can always erase it from lacquered stones using isopropanol based hand desinfectant [emoji6]. (Do a test first)
 
aaamax said:
After seeing @valgard post of his stones I have to ask, do some of you ever forget what is what? Or is everything very well marked?
I just don't dig putting a sharpie and my chicken-scratch on the bottom of any stone... lol
Click to expand...
Nope, naturals I remember them all, including most I have sold (plus I do have a spreadsheet with the details). I also tend to have a certain order within chaos, like all the suita type are in one of the storage places, all the tomae type and mid grit in another. The ones too big to fit in the storage are easy to track.
 
I store mine in a plain metal box with the rest of the synthetics.
 
I store mine in my desk drawer. Just loose and stacked.
 
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