Arashiyama water stones have arrived!

Magnaminous_G

Magnaminous_G

Joined
Jul 13, 2011
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I put them in water as soon as I got home. So excited to use these. I think I'm going to follow knifenut's advice and keep them underwater permanently. I can't think of any reason I'd take them out of my house, and so I guess there's no point drying them out ever. This is a new stage in my sharpening that I've been looking forward to for a while. :D Here they are in my kitchen cabinet:

Question: I did not get a Nagura stone... do I need one, or can I use something else?


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A diamond plate or rubbing the stones together, although the later is less than ideal of a method.

It's also a good idea to flatten them before use and grind the edges at a 45 degree angle creating a flat about 1-2mm wide. This prevents the edge of the stone from chipping.
 
Add a few drops of bleach every month to keep it from getting funky. Congrats!

I'm very very close to making a sharpening stone investment as soon as I get some feedback on my new thread I posted.
 
knifenut1013 said:
A diamond plate or rubbing the stones together, although the later is less than ideal of a method.

It's also a good idea to flatten them before use and grind the edges at a 45 degree angle creating a flat about 1-2mm wide. This prevents the edge of the stone from chipping.
Click to expand...

Thanks, knifenut! I've got several 10" DMT stones. Which grit should I use, and should I do it before every sharpening? I've heard that people use the Nagura stone to build slurry and clean the surface of metal swarf, too. Can I use the diamond stone for those purposes, as well?
 
I would only recommend the XXC 120 mesh stone, all others will become damaged if used as a flattening stone. Cheaper alternatives would be the 24 or 60 grit Nubatama stones or Norton aluminum oxide stones are actually very good at flattening waterstones.

I would not recommend using them every time as it will drastically affect the life of the stone. Nagura stone play a important role in that respect.
 
You already have some Murray Carter video, he discusses using the entire stone surface when sharpening. Following this advice will go a long way toward reducing the number of times you need to lap the stone. If you only have to use another stone to occasionally refresh the surface you'll get a lot more life from the waterstone.

I'm looking forward to hearing how these work out for you.
 
Gah, I didn't even think about flattening...

Okay, so I need to get a Nagura stone, a flattening stone (I don't have the XXC DMT, so I guess I'll get that Nabatuma 60). A propos, I heard that you should use a Nagura stone that is the same--or close to the same--grit as the stone you are building the slurry on. Is this true?

Is there anything else I should get while I'm ordering?

EDIT: The Nagura I am ordering is the King Nagura Stone, 7/8" x 7/8" x 3". Is this a good choice or does it matter?

A propos, I saw some 1000 grit and 5000 grit nagura stones. I would think that those might be better for the respective Arashiyama, but in your videos, I noticed that it looks like you use a standard Nagura (which would be like 320 grit, right?) on the Arashiyama stones.
 
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I'll let Knifenut respond with specifics relative to the Arashiyama stones, but unless the Nagura stone is matched to the stone you're using, its only going to be for deglazing/refreshing the surface, following which you should rinse the stone thoroughly before using it again. Working with a slurry generated from a Nagura that doesn't exactly match your stone is not recommended. I got around this with my King stones by sawing a 1/4" off the end of each stone with a diamond sawsall blade = matching Nagura stone for every grit I own.

A cheap AlumOx combination stone from Ace hardware works just as well as anything else for flattening the waterstone. As mentioned, do as MC does and use the entire stone as best you can.
 
The grit of most nagura stones is 4-6k but its a different stone, a chalk stone and thus will break down quickly and to a very fine level. Using a stone of the same kind to make a slurry is tomanagura.

A synthetic nagura should not be used for slurry production on fine stones because it can and will distort the scratch pattern and polishing effects of the slurry/mud. I do however use it on my Aoto or 1k stones when the knife will not build enough of the mud for the grinding intended.

Because of the abilities of the Arashiyama stones and the natural-like performance I highly recommend against using a synthetic nagura though they are much less expensive. A cheap diamond plate from HF works too.
 
Any one will work if used just for surface cleaning & leveling but if used for slurry polishing then I would use a natural nagura or tomanagura.
 
Update: I ordered a few natural chalk Nagura stones and a 8" DMT XXC stone for flattening. That makes almost $1,000 that I've got invested in sharpening equipment now... Am I crazy? :eek::eek:
 
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I have a pic of my stone collection that might make you feel better :)
 
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