catalystman80
Active Member
Hi folks,
Thinking about getting into the JNAT game and in my internet "learning" for the past couple of days, one thing I observed is that hard stones (> LV4, that's another thing I need to learn, seems like people use different scales/standards for hardness) are generally not recommended for kitchen knives because it's difficult to sharpen on hard stones.
Could you please advise why this is the case? Couple of things I did find out are (and please correct me if they are wrong):
- it's difficult to raise slurry on harder stones (could this be mitigated by using a tomo nagura, and if tomo nagura for a given stone cannot be found, what are some alternatives?)
- harder stones tend to scratch the knives despite its ability to polish higher than softer stones (what if I were just using it for a secondary or microbevel sharpening? would this work?)
One other thought is that coming from having used harder synthetics (shapton pros, choseras), I sometimes prefer both an edge trailing and leading strokes as I've found the edge leading stroke doesn't dig into the harder stones (though I've gotten better with my pressure control, so I'm okay on softer synthetics too). I'm wondering whether this type of method could be transferable to hard JNATs, or am I completely off the rail here?
Just to provide some context, just a home cook/enthusiast with gyutos in your typical clad blue's and white's, some ginsankos, HAP 40, and ZDP 189. Mainly started thinking about JNATs to get that kasumi finish that my Shaptons/Choseras won't give me without sacrificing the edge performance. Initially thinking adding one or two JNATS to follow a 3k or 6k synthetic depending on the knife/use.
Thanks for reading through my ramblings, would greatly appreciate any wisdom/experience/feedback you'd be willing to share. Thank you!
Josh
Thinking about getting into the JNAT game and in my internet "learning" for the past couple of days, one thing I observed is that hard stones (> LV4, that's another thing I need to learn, seems like people use different scales/standards for hardness) are generally not recommended for kitchen knives because it's difficult to sharpen on hard stones.
Could you please advise why this is the case? Couple of things I did find out are (and please correct me if they are wrong):
- it's difficult to raise slurry on harder stones (could this be mitigated by using a tomo nagura, and if tomo nagura for a given stone cannot be found, what are some alternatives?)
- harder stones tend to scratch the knives despite its ability to polish higher than softer stones (what if I were just using it for a secondary or microbevel sharpening? would this work?)
One other thought is that coming from having used harder synthetics (shapton pros, choseras), I sometimes prefer both an edge trailing and leading strokes as I've found the edge leading stroke doesn't dig into the harder stones (though I've gotten better with my pressure control, so I'm okay on softer synthetics too). I'm wondering whether this type of method could be transferable to hard JNATs, or am I completely off the rail here?
Just to provide some context, just a home cook/enthusiast with gyutos in your typical clad blue's and white's, some ginsankos, HAP 40, and ZDP 189. Mainly started thinking about JNATs to get that kasumi finish that my Shaptons/Choseras won't give me without sacrificing the edge performance. Initially thinking adding one or two JNATS to follow a 3k or 6k synthetic depending on the knife/use.
Thanks for reading through my ramblings, would greatly appreciate any wisdom/experience/feedback you'd be willing to share. Thank you!
Josh
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