Do I need a Nagura stone?

Joined
Aug 20, 2012
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Hi guys, I ordered a Bester 1200, Suehiro Rika 5000 and Takenoko 8000 and was wondering if a Nagura stone is needed. I saw one on Amazon by Masuta. Is it really needed or will my DMT course be fine for leveling and the like?

Thanks!
 
A synthetic nagura is best used as a cleaning stone that helps to keep your stone levelish. It is not a leveling stone or a flattening stone and you for sure do not want to make a slurry with it because they are often coarser stones that will ruin the fine finish.

Natural nagura stones on the other hand are used to promote slurry/mud development for use in sharpening/polishing.

Unless you sharpen Scandi grinds or large single bevel japanese knives then using a slurry/mud has very minimal benefit to the results.
 
You should be good to go, I never use a Nagura on my synthetics. I have the Bester & Rika, my 8k is a Kitayama. 3 or 4 seconds with the DMT will give plenty of slurry
to start up with. The only time I use a Nagura is with my Jumbo Binsui natural, it doesn't form a slurry very well on it's own.
 
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