Disclaimer: I’m a professional *******. Do not try this dumb stuff at home.
Just a little story about my least favorite JNAT and his friends. Well, I only have one JNAT so it does double duty as both my favorite and least favorite.
Soooooooo, there I was. Had a real bug up my butt about jumping into the JNAT pool with everyone else. I’m on yahoo auctions Japan and I am BOUND and DETERMINED to make some money disappear. I’m looking for a finisher, the harder the better, has to be 8x3 or very close to that because that’s the only size I like, nicely squared up, no cracks, and of course, not cost a lot of money. So this stone pops up and I wish I saved a picture. It’s filthy. Can’t make heads or tails of what it really is. Seller said that it was an Ozuku Mizu Asagi. Keith V. Johnson has a video of one of these on YT and I fell in love with that stone. Seller didn’t know anything about rocks, and it seemed like he was maybe selling off a late relative’s stuff. This auction was ending at an odd time too. Just a couple signs that it probably wasn’t going to go crazy expensive. In retrospect I should not have taken the gamble as there was a decent chance it was just a dirty brick. Anyways, of course I buy it. It’s at my door and my wallet is $120 lighter.
I clean it up a little and put it through the paces right away. It was bad and I was downright disappointed. Bad that put it away for a few weeks and didn’t touch it. Later on I break it out again and it’s a little better. Figured out the surface was just in real bad shape, like it had heavy oxidation, and it needed to basically be removed. So I take a DMT to it then I also try out some Dawn and water as lubricant and absolutely nailed it on sharpening a knife. That was it. I was hooked. I went back a few more times SiC grit, DMT, and flattening stones and the further down I got the better the rock got.
It took a REAL long time to get there but this rock turned out - at least to me - to be a gem. I love this guy. Last weekend, I cleaned it up real good and sealed it with urushi lacquer. To me this is just a beautiful stone. I don’t have any other JNAT’s to compare it with but I believe it to be a quite hard, and quite fine stone. It does leave a mirror finish, not a hazy finish on knives.
First picture is my JNAT. My favorite Nogueira is Rodrigo aka Big Nog. I think he may have been the GOAT HW if Fedor hadn’t come along. Anyways also in the picture are my naguras: King 8000, great soft stone that is really versatile; my Tsushima, I got this off Amazon. I think these are fake but that’s a story for another time; my Shapton Pro 12k that I hacksawed into naguras; and my beloved MikasaEsTuKasa stamped by Mr. Suehiro large size nagura. On top of the stone is my hap40 Nakiri. I bought the blade from IbukiBlade and made a handle for it. This was my first attempt at making a handle and some would say I still suck at it. Everyone should have a great Nakiri like this. They make food prep fun.
Next coupe of pictures are of the stone faces.
Next pic is the stone with the King 8K slurry. This is a good combo on a variety of stones. I sometimes use this nagura with a 1K or 2K synth to give performance of a higher grit stone. It’s soft so it sheds slurry real easy. It’s also dirt cheap at around $11. Get one if you don’t have one.
Next pic is the worked slurry. Does a good job even on hap40 which can put up some resistance. The knife does have some 1K scratch pattern on it that will be more visible later.
Next pic is the Suehiro nagura slurry. This is good stuff!!! Followed by the worked slurry.
Not pictured was some stropping on balsa with 1m and 0.25m diamond.
Last pic is the Nakiri with some popped hairs. I’m still learning, still improving. These weren’t like HHT5 which I hope to get to some day, but it’s still pretty sharp.
Just a little story about my least favorite JNAT and his friends. Well, I only have one JNAT so it does double duty as both my favorite and least favorite.
Soooooooo, there I was. Had a real bug up my butt about jumping into the JNAT pool with everyone else. I’m on yahoo auctions Japan and I am BOUND and DETERMINED to make some money disappear. I’m looking for a finisher, the harder the better, has to be 8x3 or very close to that because that’s the only size I like, nicely squared up, no cracks, and of course, not cost a lot of money. So this stone pops up and I wish I saved a picture. It’s filthy. Can’t make heads or tails of what it really is. Seller said that it was an Ozuku Mizu Asagi. Keith V. Johnson has a video of one of these on YT and I fell in love with that stone. Seller didn’t know anything about rocks, and it seemed like he was maybe selling off a late relative’s stuff. This auction was ending at an odd time too. Just a couple signs that it probably wasn’t going to go crazy expensive. In retrospect I should not have taken the gamble as there was a decent chance it was just a dirty brick. Anyways, of course I buy it. It’s at my door and my wallet is $120 lighter.
I clean it up a little and put it through the paces right away. It was bad and I was downright disappointed. Bad that put it away for a few weeks and didn’t touch it. Later on I break it out again and it’s a little better. Figured out the surface was just in real bad shape, like it had heavy oxidation, and it needed to basically be removed. So I take a DMT to it then I also try out some Dawn and water as lubricant and absolutely nailed it on sharpening a knife. That was it. I was hooked. I went back a few more times SiC grit, DMT, and flattening stones and the further down I got the better the rock got.
It took a REAL long time to get there but this rock turned out - at least to me - to be a gem. I love this guy. Last weekend, I cleaned it up real good and sealed it with urushi lacquer. To me this is just a beautiful stone. I don’t have any other JNAT’s to compare it with but I believe it to be a quite hard, and quite fine stone. It does leave a mirror finish, not a hazy finish on knives.
First picture is my JNAT. My favorite Nogueira is Rodrigo aka Big Nog. I think he may have been the GOAT HW if Fedor hadn’t come along. Anyways also in the picture are my naguras: King 8000, great soft stone that is really versatile; my Tsushima, I got this off Amazon. I think these are fake but that’s a story for another time; my Shapton Pro 12k that I hacksawed into naguras; and my beloved MikasaEsTuKasa stamped by Mr. Suehiro large size nagura. On top of the stone is my hap40 Nakiri. I bought the blade from IbukiBlade and made a handle for it. This was my first attempt at making a handle and some would say I still suck at it. Everyone should have a great Nakiri like this. They make food prep fun.
Next coupe of pictures are of the stone faces.
Next pic is the stone with the King 8K slurry. This is a good combo on a variety of stones. I sometimes use this nagura with a 1K or 2K synth to give performance of a higher grit stone. It’s soft so it sheds slurry real easy. It’s also dirt cheap at around $11. Get one if you don’t have one.
Next pic is the worked slurry. Does a good job even on hap40 which can put up some resistance. The knife does have some 1K scratch pattern on it that will be more visible later.
Next pic is the Suehiro nagura slurry. This is good stuff!!! Followed by the worked slurry.
Not pictured was some stropping on balsa with 1m and 0.25m diamond.
Last pic is the Nakiri with some popped hairs. I’m still learning, still improving. These weren’t like HHT5 which I hope to get to some day, but it’s still pretty sharp.
Attachments
-
5A726190-1A23-47E7-A712-C7F9EAA79426.jpeg -
E5484C66-9B53-4E24-943F-66BE18E277F6.jpeg -
C1A56DA4-505E-461D-AAA2-A5042B0DF68E.jpeg -
9829CF21-9648-4F2F-8B10-D7F81C25301D.jpeg -
468A162B-C5CA-46A0-A2D3-9862BF69D1FC.jpeg -
71ABB092-3F61-43B4-8DA6-FBEA59948DF9.jpeg -
EB0304B5-C24E-4AB7-93A7-6B461DC4A1DF.jpeg -
97A18947-85E6-4F66-8A12-90436B1A87AB.jpeg -
12995F39-7CC0-4AE8-B900-5CC95C34FACB.jpeg
Last edited:
