I know a Nagura is used to create a slurry. I was wondering though what would happen if you tried to sharpen with it? Is a Nagura different in composition to a sharpening stone of equivalent grit? the reason I ask is because you can buy an 8000 grit Nagura in woodcraft for $8. Its small but I thought maybe it could go in my camping bag for touching up a micro bevel on a small knife.
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Nagura question
- Thread starter Ryan J
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2011
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- 795
Well that would depend on the Nagura. Not all are created equal.
Generally speaking the synthetic "nagura" stones are garbage , most are quite coarse. The Chosera ones come to mind (a 400 grit nagura stone with a 10k stone , no thank you sir). If its large enough theres no reason you cant use it as a small pocket 8k stone , although the quality will remain somewhat of a mystery until you actually get it. IMO a better alternative would be an EP or KME stone , matching the finishing grit of the knife. That way you can just touch it up with the same grit with a stone of a known quality.
Diamond films on glass could also work well here , they can take grease/oils if its a knife used for cleaning game. These are also available in EP/KME sizes from the usual suppliers.
Generally speaking the synthetic "nagura" stones are garbage , most are quite coarse. The Chosera ones come to mind (a 400 grit nagura stone with a 10k stone , no thank you sir). If its large enough theres no reason you cant use it as a small pocket 8k stone , although the quality will remain somewhat of a mystery until you actually get it. IMO a better alternative would be an EP or KME stone , matching the finishing grit of the knife. That way you can just touch it up with the same grit with a stone of a known quality.
Diamond films on glass could also work well here , they can take grease/oils if its a knife used for cleaning game. These are also available in EP/KME sizes from the usual suppliers.
Thanks for the reply. Good point about bringing along an equivalent grit as I finished with. Im ordering lapping films from Jende here shortly. Didnt occur to me to take along one of the films on one of my blanks. I think mostly I was excited because it was such a cheap price for such a high grit. It's called G1 gold synthetic nagura. Good point also about the lapping films not being ruined by oil. It would be hard to get a knife clean in the field to use a waterstone on it. Thanks
Jason B.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
- 11,179
I think there is some confusion here.
Synthetic nagura stones are not garbage, they are cleaning stones made to clean off the metal residue stuck to the surface of a finishing stone. The Chosera synthetic nagura is actually very good at its job and I use one all the time to clean off my stones after sharpening. It's a 600 grit stone and as with any synthetic nagura you need to completely rinse the stone before use. If you don't then you will be sharpening on a stone with a contaminated slurry that will disrupt the scratch pattern of the stone.
Natural nagura is refered to as a chalk stone, it's a softer and sometimes chalky stone that's ideal for natural stones and even synthetic stones. You can even buy full size natural nagura stones for hand sharpening but these are best used on traditional Japanese single bevel blades and swords.
In the last spot you have Tomanagura, which is stone of stone nagura. This is for the purest that want the slurry to be pure stone to provide the best possible scratch pattern.
In this case, forget about using a nagura as a field stone, might as well put dirt on a board. It's not a sharpening stone and I wouldn't try and use it as one.
Synthetic nagura stones are not garbage, they are cleaning stones made to clean off the metal residue stuck to the surface of a finishing stone. The Chosera synthetic nagura is actually very good at its job and I use one all the time to clean off my stones after sharpening. It's a 600 grit stone and as with any synthetic nagura you need to completely rinse the stone before use. If you don't then you will be sharpening on a stone with a contaminated slurry that will disrupt the scratch pattern of the stone.
Natural nagura is refered to as a chalk stone, it's a softer and sometimes chalky stone that's ideal for natural stones and even synthetic stones. You can even buy full size natural nagura stones for hand sharpening but these are best used on traditional Japanese single bevel blades and swords.
In the last spot you have Tomanagura, which is stone of stone nagura. This is for the purest that want the slurry to be pure stone to provide the best possible scratch pattern.
In this case, forget about using a nagura as a field stone, might as well put dirt on a board. It's not a sharpening stone and I wouldn't try and use it as one.