No grandiose kasumi, but a look at scratch pattern with an even less grandiose blade.
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This an Higo Aogami 100mm. And my first go on a new Nanohone 200.
Obviously the knife has that shifty grind nearing the handle. Last Higono I had (lost/stolen/alien abducted) was even worse with a big recurve at the edge. This one a sort of concave low spot/OG, but minimal recurve. Anything of the likes reminding of most edges on cheap western knives with a full bolster. It's like you'd have understood by now when a design is just bad.
Back to scratches now...
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About the Nanohone: Contrast is good - not like it's important at that level anyway, but still... Behaved scratch pattern. Didn't feel particularly hard nor soft, nor particularly muddy or not. It IS truly splash and go but does soak a bit of water to start. Dries faster than my SP320 did when left to dry. As long as I won't polish a proper sized blade, hard to say much about water behavior in serious work. Has sort of a porous, very grainy feeling. Readily releases abrasives, I'd guesstimate somewhat as dishy or a bit dishier than SG500. For coarseness it's generally very well behaved, but it's not like I'm thrilled with it or something. I do like how it polishes - seems a good start. It's hard enough to validate work on a wide bevel, but I'd still be inclined to make sure I have a very hard stone to follow up. It has enough give for convexing work. Sort of imperfect middle ground but can sure be of good use if the progression is well thought from it. Couldn't say much about speed from this polishing session but I feel it won't be as fast as the best I've seen in these grits. All in all, I'd say that if a Cerax 320 would be harder and splash and go, possibly a bit faster, Nanohone 200 would be it. Weird to compare the Nano to such a muddy dishy thirsty stone, but really it's the one it made me think about the most. If in doubt about this statement, try a non-permasoaked Cerax 320 with very little soaking time (I did a few times in the beginning) and compare the feeling. Even the scratch pattern resembles a Cerax 320 that wasn't soaked enough. Same ballpark dark kasumi and quite good contrast, as well. Will probably try some soaking periods with the Nano and see what happens... hoping what happens won't be its demise.
And more scratches still -
gracieuseté of SG500 this time.
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It's not that it took time to cover up the Nanohone scratch pattern, however it took more time than I expected to
clean it, and still wasn't perfect. Not just especially around the low spot, but as you can see, a bit of everywhere. Either SG500 takes much more readily from either a (well soaked/perma) Cerax 320 or even my Sigma 240... or either it's working on such a small bevel that completely puts me off my marks. It really wasn't a pleasurable experience polishing the Higo, even counting out the handle being a PITA.
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Under it's better angle though, blade looks like finer factory belt pattern... or so.
A testament of real splash and go coarse stones...
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