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Post by stalkerfromtheearth on Jul 1, 2024 7:44:50 GMT
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Post by mrstabby on Jul 1, 2024 8:51:46 GMT
The only thing I am sure of is, they will be more uniform than natural stones. No grit inclusions and the one bought today will be the same as the one bought a year from now. There should be no quiality gradient. I have read they are quite soft compared to other artificial stones, making them better for polishing than sharpening. I have no idea how they compare to naturals, but I would hope they have done their homework and made a good approximation, but I have no personal experience with japanese stones. Only have had experience on "normal" sharpening stones, the artificials can be tuned while with natural you get what you get. The artificial stones' scratch pattern should be more uniform, might have a different feel to it, more or less feedback depending on if it's harder or softer than the one you came from. Also if it's harder, it would produce less slurry making it less polishing than a softer one, although you can always use a diamond plate to produce some more slurry while also straightening the stones surface. IMHO it's more personal preference at low grit. The final polishing steps the naturals might give a better result depending on chemical side reactions (but that's speculation). EDIT: The grit of the artificial does not necessarily equal the natural ones, so even if you get the same grit, depending on how hard the stones are and what size variation in particles the natural had, the finish might look different (but higher hardness you can somnewhat alleviate by grinding the stone a bit with something harder to create more slurry).
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Post by larason2 on Jul 1, 2024 22:24:29 GMT
I have most of these. My preference is the natural. It takes longer to use, but the particle shape is more round, so you get less deep scratches. It also has the best feel of all of them by far. The natural binsui's are an amazing value, and they are no longer mined, so buy them before they're all gone!
That being said, the synths are all also pretty good. These are all softer than most sharpening stone you get like the shaptons, which makes them better for polishing, but not as good for sharpening. Which is just to say, they take longer; but because they're soft, if you use the right technique you'll get them sharper. They're all pretty porous, so I usually hold them under the water for a few minutes until they finish bubbling so much, and that helps prevent water on the stone from dissappearing immediately. I have the Green one (Tokkyu-hin), and it has the best feel of the three I have by far. It also is a great polisher. What I don't like about it is the green clay makes the blade look weird in my opinion (colour of the clay that sticks to the blade). This only applies if you're doing an unburnished, which is traditional, polish with it though. Otherwise it is a great stone. I also have the asahi, it came with the sword polishing kit. It's a great stone, but feels a bit weird to use, almost pasty and a bit sticky. Polishes amazingly, and the colour it leaves goes well with anything. If I was sold on a synth though, I'd go for the shin asagi, hoping it has the best traits of both the others.
Personally though, I basically always use the natural. It's one of the best and most versatile stones I own. The pros in Japan feel the same way about it. If you don't like it for some reason, but want a natural, check out some of Ikkyu Japan's offerings. I got a white natural binsui from them for a reasonable price that is a fair bit finer, but also works great. Almost looks a bit like a kaisei do, has similar looking inclusions. I also bought a torato (tiger) binsui from Knifewear that's a bit coarser. It's gorgeous, but it's rare I need it so coarse when I'm not using a kongo-do. The brown/white binsui from Namikawa is the best overall I've found.
Mr stabby is right, the synths all have more uniform scratch patterns. At this grit it doesn't matter much though. For lapping stones (which the binsui does well), it's better to have less uniform scratch patterns. Uniform scratches do speed up polishing though. You can tune naturals a bit, soaking more or less, or lapping with a coarser or finer lapping stone. Again though, it doesn't matter much for a binsui grit stone, it's hard to make it a lot less or more coarse. You're mostly removing kongo-do scratches for the polish, and sharpening for the blade, so usually not much tuning is necessary.
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Post by stalkerfromtheearth on Jul 1, 2024 23:00:48 GMT
Thank you all! I think I'll go with the natural stone
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Post by theforestninja on Aug 1, 2024 20:54:50 GMT
I got 2 Binsui JNats and along with every other JNat used in Traditional Japanese Sword polishing. Some of which are getting much harder to find as time goes by because most of the mines have long been closed.
Note: Lyoto Jnat was used before Binsui in the old days and luckily are still being mined today. So it can be used if You can't find a Binsui.
Cheers
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Post by stalkerfromtheearth on Aug 2, 2024 10:49:54 GMT
I got 2 Binsui JNats and along with every other JNat used in Traditional Japanese Sword polishing. Some of which are getting much harder to find as time goes by because most of the mines have long been closed. Note: Lyoto Jnat was used before Binsui in the old days and luckily are still being mined today. So it can be used if You can't find a Binsui. Cheers Thanks for the tip!
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