J-Nat Club

[refcast]

@Wabisabi-Ken

The faster you see the stone turn the swarf from black to red, the more reactive the stone is, and likely to leave etching or paitina marks on the knife

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

@Wabisabi-Ken

The faster you see the stone turn the swarf from black to red, the more reactive the stone is, and likely to leave etching or paitina marks on the knife

I see! Good to know, is there any way to counteract this? Is this characteristic useful in any way either?

 

[ethompson]

Put a little washing soda in a squeeze or squirt bottle with water and use that instead of water from the sink.

 

[refcast]

You'd have to use slightly alkaline water, yeah.

The etching ability is good if you like using the slurry to watch and darken iron but I've never personally been successful enough

 

[ethompson]

It’s also my understanding that this phenomenon is primarily the sulphur content of stones reacting with the water to create a weak acid. If you get one that is really reactive (such as pretty much all ohira ao renge) the sulphur smell is quite obvious

 

[ethompson]

End game hard-minus finishing stone for me. Feel very fortunate to have gotten this one - Nakayama suita with Maruka stamp. The base polish for the video should’ve been cleaner and I could’ve spent longer working the stone, but for a quick polish the quality of the stone is evident.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

End game hard-minus finishing stone for me. Feel very fortunate to have gotten this one - Nakayama suita with Maruka stamp. The base polish for the video should’ve been cleaner and I could’ve spent longer working the stone, but for a quick polish the quality of the stone is evident.
View attachment 191844
View attachment 191845

Aw, so that's you on IG. Gave it a on there first thing this morning!

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

6 seconds is just far too short you tease, gotta watch it over and over again. What's your insta, hand over the goods! @ethompson

 

[ethompson]

6 seconds is just far too short you tease, gotta watch it over and over again. What's your insta, hand over the goods! @ethompson

edt_knivesnstones

This is by far my most impressive specimen so don’t expect to be inundated with rock-porn haha

 

[Jurrian]

Finish of a nakayama suita on a Kisuke Manaka. Its work in progress, but the finish is worth showing.

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

Yeyyyyy I'm baaaaaack, had a problem where the option to post images was greyed out. Anyway, was playing with some jnats and came across some cool detailing in the cladding of a knife that had been lying around for a while. I earlier made a post about getting maybe a nice kiridashi for testing polishes on jnats but cool ones are damn expensive. Now I have this knife I'm not fussed about the kiridashi although it would still be cool to have..

From this

to this! Still some low spots but it'll even out eventually

it should be fun to see what brings out the detail in the cladding, are there any techniques for this? Or is it highly dependent on a case by case basis?

 

[ethompson]

That is beautiful! In general, harder stones show more detail than softer stones and finer stones show the detail with greater fidelity than coarser stones. You could also etch it to bring out even more banding, etc. but where is the fun in cheating like that?!

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

That is beautiful! In general, harder stones show more detail than softer stones and finer stones show the detail with greater fidelity than coarser stones. You could also etch it to bring out even more banding, etc. but where is the fun in cheating like that?!

Haha yeah I have heard of people doing some etching, I'm really a fan of more subtle natural looking things in general (for example I'm not a big fan of most Damascus knives cause they just seem to look tackyish) so not sure if etching can go down that path. I should look into etching more though, I could be very wrong. It could be yet another interesting hole to dive into.

 

[Einco]

Yeyyyyy I'm baaaaaack, had a problem where the option to post images was greyed out. Anyway, was playing with some jnats and came across some cool detailing in the cladding of a knife that had been lying around for a while. I earlier made a post about getting maybe a nice kiridashi for testing polishes on jnats but cool ones are damn expensive. Now I have this knife I'm not fussed about the kiridashi although it would still be cool to have..

From this

View attachment 192261to this! Still some low spots but it'll even out eventually View attachment 192262it should be fun to see what brings out the detail in the cladding, are there any techniques for this? Or is it highly dependent on a case by case basis?

I'm curious, how does one bring out detail like this? Continually rinse the stone? Something else? What kind of pressure did you use? It looks great

 

[ethompson]

Haha yeah I have heard of people doing some etching, I'm really a fan of more subtle natural looking things in general (for example I'm not a big fan of most Damascus knives cause they just seem to look tackyish) so not sure if etching can go down that path. I should look into etching more though, I could be very wrong. It could be yet another interesting hole to dive into.

I definitely prefer subtle natural stone finishes too, but etching does have a role and is a useful tool

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

I'm curious, how does one bring out detail like this? Continually rinse the stone? Something else? What kind of pressure did you use? It looks great

The detail is inherently in the steel itself. I started on it with a king 800 which lays down a heavy contrast and I could see that detail was present which got me excited. So I went to atoma 400 to flatten it out then go through the steps of getting scratches out. It's the jnats that really refine the way it looks, that was just my first test so I'll experiment with a few different ones to see what looks best. As for pressure I guess from my little experience so far the more pressure I use on certain stones it tends to burnish. Leaving a glossier finish with less contrast

 

[deltaplex]

The detail is inherently in the steel itself. I started on it with a king 800 which lays down a heavy contrast and I could see that detail was present which got me excited. So I went to atoma 400 to flatten it out then go through the steps of getting scratches out. It's the jnats that really refine the way it looks, that was just my first test so I'll experiment with a few different ones to see what looks best. As for pressure I guess from my little experience so far the more pressure I use on certain stones it tends to burnish. Leaving a glossier finish with less contrast

Did you pull that detail out with a Natsuya?

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

Did you pull that detail out with a Natsuya?

Yeah I'm finding the natsuyas to be great for bringing out detail! If only they were a bit finer and didn't leave any visible scratchiness haha

 

[ethompson]

Yeah, the hardness of a good natsuya excels at bringing out detail. If you can manage the slurry and water long enough you can get a smoother finish, but never as subtle a scratch pattern as something finer. They’re really excellent working finishes though as it’s much easier to touch up after actually using the knife etc.

 

[Jurrian]

Hi, the details of the carbon migration during the forging process will come out when the foundation is made clean, a flat surface helps. You can also make a more convex shape, but that’s more difficult.
Hard and fine stones make a mirror like finish with a lot of detail. But softer stones like a softer ohira suita, maruoyama suita etc, can also bring a lot of detail.
Contrast between the core and the clad are really important. Focus on blue (aogami) or white (shirogami). Their Europe counterparts can produce good result l, especially 135c3 (equivalent shirogami)
For scratchless; slurry with light pressure, clean stone, lap, clean of the slurry and use water as a lubricant. This is difficult, the knife can get stuck a little.
I have a video on Instagram:

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

Think I can make it to 50 shades of Aizu?

Just got this big green ol' green brick. I thought the one next to it was exceptionally green but oh no. It doesn't seem to have as much of that white haze to it... Maybe it's not an Aizu at all, does anyone know of other green jnats? I guess I should test them against each other and see who stays and who goes, maybe I'll chop the small one up to make nagura.

 

[YG420]

Think I can make it to 50 shades of Aizu?

Just got this big green ol' green brick. I thought the one next to it was exceptionally green but oh no. It doesn't seem to have as much of that white haze to it... Maybe it's not an Aizu at all, does anyone know of other green jnats? I guess I should test them against each other and see who stays and who goes, maybe I'll chop the small one up to make nagura. View attachment 192600

Looks like an ikarsashi i had long time ago. They can look similar with the ikarashi usaully a bit more green

 

[Wabisabi-Ken]

Looks like an ikarsashi i had long time ago. They can look similar with the ikarashi usaully a bit more green

Good to know.. It behaved similar to aizu, maybe a bit softer? I'll have a look into it, thanks!

 

[ethompson]

Another vote for ikarashi on the bottom one

 

[ethompson]

My first go at building a dai. Could’ve been a little cleaner but given it’s my first try at both sharpening chisels and this, I’m pretty happy. Stone is a painfully soft but super fine nakayama iromono koppa

PS - plz ignore the blood stain I’ll sand off before sealing the dai… incident with a chisel…

 

[SWF]

Just received this beautiful stone, wonder how it will perform ...

 

[Rameka]

I haven't visited the forum for a bit (busy with school for the past 8 months...) so I had a few pages to catch up on. Some of you have some truly impressive collections...color me a tad jealous.
Here's one of my own favorite stones, a stunning rainbow iromono namito from Okunomon that I picked up sometime last year. Just over 1kg and perfect bench size. It's quite dished but I've been procrastinating lapping the stamps off. Orange, purple, green, and some namazu along the edges, it's got a bit of everything. My crappy cellphone pic doesn't do it justice (I really need to get my nice lenses out of storage and take proper pics sometime...).

 

[4wa1l]

Picked up two new big stones. I emailed Yasuko at Ikkyu as I wanted to pick up a couple of stones mostly for edges but I'm always keen to try and polish too. She was super helpful and the stones were very reasonably priced.

I was interested in a finer Binsui as I figured it could be a nice toothy stone in the 2000ish range. I ended up getting a 2.8kg slab of a Shiro Binsui which seems ridiculously large when I mostly have cheaper little koppa. It was actually cut from a giant stone into multiple "smaller" stones. Still think some are available on the ebay store.

Def requires some help to get a slurry going but then seems to put down quite a nice even finish when polishing. It appears to burnish more than cut without the forced slurry. On the coarser side compared to my other jnats but I think it will work nicely as intended. Formed a burr quickly enough and felt like it gave a nice edge. Pictured next to a Morihei synthetic for a size comparison.

I also picked up another aoto. I liked my narrow Aono Aoto a lot and wanted a larger one. Yasuko sourced this 1.8kg Wachi Aoto. It behaves quite differently than my previous one. Nowhere near as thirsty or muddy but still self slurries with some pressure. Actually felt a bit better with some more diamond plate slurry. Holds the water and allows the mud to break down rather than continue to release a heap of new grit. I'm pretty stoked with this tbh. Polishing still probably not its strong suit as it has left some coarser scratches looking at it but we'll see.

 

[Froztitanz]

Sorry for the absence. Finally figured out why I couldn't upload these pics onto kkf initially.

In the meantime, do enjoy these truly top-tier jnats from Shoubudani.

 

[Pie]

You make heavy contrast, iyoto. Heavy indeed.