Cool thread.
I've been on the naturals train for only about three months now, but have spent more money on sharpening tools in the past three months than I had during the previous 8 years of free hand sharpening LOL.
I was lucky to have a great member from this forum reach out to me, answer bunch of my newbie questions, allow me to buy one of his stones, and also loan me a few of his stones to learn on!. Also many here replied to my very first post here about JNATs. So thank you!
I've so far obtained 6 JNATS, and I've recently acquired a few Belgian Coticules and an Escher (I started out mainly focusing on stones for knife sharpening, but also expanded the search for straight razor honing). I do want to eventually add a JNAT or two in the long run, but they will be quite pricey (and I don't necessarily need them functionally), so I'm "saving" for them in the future years
It's been a great ride (and an expensive one, rivaling the days I was obsessed with Leicas LOL) so far. I just love sitting down with a stone whenever I have an hour or two, and just working various edges off of it. The uniqueness of each stone from the smell, texture, hardness, feedback, fineness, etc are all very intoxicating. Just on the stones I have now, I know I will have many years of learning and enjoyment. I don’t necessarily think they are better or worse than synthetics, but different in very wonderful ways. Part of my main driver was to get the natural Kasumi finish, so I’ve definitely benefited from the recent acquisitions, but I also love the variation in the type of edges I get. It’s like developing a relationship with each stone.
During the past three months, here are the related vendors (so not all for JNAT purchases, but they sell natural stones) that I had great experiences with:
- Maksim from JNS (of course everyone knows him)
- So Yamashita from Japan-Tool (wealth of knowledge about JNATs)
- Jonathan from JKI - haven't bought a JNAT from Jon, but I've bought knives and interacted with him in the past, a stand up guy for sure.
- Jarrod from The Superior Shave - got my Coticule from him, very knowledgeable about Coti's and a funny guy a in a quirky way
Has some interesting/informative videos the ytube.
- Aframestokyo - was a little suspicious when a question I sent over IG was never answered (perhaps he prefers e-mails....not sure), but recently bought a 80k Kanayama strop from the webstore, and it was shipped right away.
Couple of not so great experiences (or tips):
- metalmasterjp on ebay. Though it wasn't for a natural stone (wanted to get some new Atomas). I bought some, and no shipment for over a month. Sent multiple notes and no answer, so got a refund through ebay. From what I read in the past, he seems to have a good reputation, but must not be checking (or unable to) his e-mail account these days.
- I also tried to buy a stone off the Watanabe website using their “Add to cart” page. It also says on that page please wait 5 days for the reply, and don’t send emails. I’ve been waiting over a month now. Someone on this forum advised I contact by email. But I ended up buying a similar stone from someone else recently, so I didn’t bother. It seems like he has a great reputation, so for others, I would recommend sending an email instead.