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I decided to go all in on the Nanohone world, to see what it was all about. OK, not the mounting plates.
I have now tried every single one of their stones. Here's some impressions.
If you want the sort of "this one is good, this one is not so good" dissection that people routinely do on synthetic stone lines, I'm not your guy. I have most of the Shapton Glass stones, and with the exception of the 220 (I don't have the 120), I'd pretty much describe all of them the same way: hard, slow-wearing, really nice to use, sort of creamy for their grit, two thumbs up. I really like these stones.
Same context for the Nanohones, I have to talk about the line as a whole. They are grittier-feeling than the SG stones, which is not my favored feel, but they work really well. They are competent. I even took a razor all the way from 400 to 10,000, and had no complaints.
It'll never be my favorite line of synthetic stones, but I have no complaints. These are serious contenders in the top of the league, and it's hard to imagine a purchaser regretting the purchase. I may sell them someday, but I would never do that if I didn't have the Glass stones.
Then there's the other purchase, bought during the end-of-year MTC Kitchen sale, the NL-10 lapping stone. Wow. It's a heavy chunk of metal, a narrower than a standard bench stone, with diamond-impregnated buttons on it, for flattening stones. I've been using it a lot, especially before honing razors, when it's really useful to have a dead-flat stone. This is one impressive tool. A few diagonal strokes, a bit of small circular motion, and your stone is truly flat enough to trust to hone a razor. And no suction, which is what led me to consider a replacement for the played-out diamond stones I was using. If Nanohone had never made anything but this, I'd call their company worthwhile.
I guess it was a little frivolous, as a purchase, considering the price, even after the 20% discount. It's not for seriously flattening very worn stones (according to the instructions), and the diamond plates did work, once I got them unstuck from the stone, but it's a very serious piece of equipment that I am very glad to have in the arsenal. I wouldn't be without it now. I'd like to think it is making my stones flatter than the diamond plates (very important for razor honing), but that could be fantasy, and the really important point is that it's so easy to use that I reach for it more often, so it makes my stones flatter than they would be, anyway.
I have now tried every single one of their stones. Here's some impressions.
If you want the sort of "this one is good, this one is not so good" dissection that people routinely do on synthetic stone lines, I'm not your guy. I have most of the Shapton Glass stones, and with the exception of the 220 (I don't have the 120), I'd pretty much describe all of them the same way: hard, slow-wearing, really nice to use, sort of creamy for their grit, two thumbs up. I really like these stones.
Same context for the Nanohones, I have to talk about the line as a whole. They are grittier-feeling than the SG stones, which is not my favored feel, but they work really well. They are competent. I even took a razor all the way from 400 to 10,000, and had no complaints.
It'll never be my favorite line of synthetic stones, but I have no complaints. These are serious contenders in the top of the league, and it's hard to imagine a purchaser regretting the purchase. I may sell them someday, but I would never do that if I didn't have the Glass stones.
Then there's the other purchase, bought during the end-of-year MTC Kitchen sale, the NL-10 lapping stone. Wow. It's a heavy chunk of metal, a narrower than a standard bench stone, with diamond-impregnated buttons on it, for flattening stones. I've been using it a lot, especially before honing razors, when it's really useful to have a dead-flat stone. This is one impressive tool. A few diagonal strokes, a bit of small circular motion, and your stone is truly flat enough to trust to hone a razor. And no suction, which is what led me to consider a replacement for the played-out diamond stones I was using. If Nanohone had never made anything but this, I'd call their company worthwhile.
I guess it was a little frivolous, as a purchase, considering the price, even after the 20% discount. It's not for seriously flattening very worn stones (according to the instructions), and the diamond plates did work, once I got them unstuck from the stone, but it's a very serious piece of equipment that I am very glad to have in the arsenal. I wouldn't be without it now. I'd like to think it is making my stones flatter than the diamond plates (very important for razor honing), but that could be fantasy, and the really important point is that it's so easy to use that I reach for it more often, so it makes my stones flatter than they would be, anyway.