Prior to the JNats I used a DMT XXC, Bamboo 150, Chosera 400, Kohetsu 800, Kohetsu 2k, and a Naniwa SS 5k ending as a streaked out dirty mirror. I used all trailing strokes with the knife oriented perpendicular to the stone rather than at a 45...painfully slow going.
The first JNat is an Aoto Kouzaki from Ken. Wasn't sure about it the first couple times on edge work, but now I love it. SO MUCH MUD! I started scrubbing at a 45 on this stone moving my fingers from the bottom of the hammered finish down to the edge. I eased up on the pressure once I had a ton of mud and evened things out a little.
The next stone is a mystery stone from ebay with a 6-8k finish. It gives my favorite edge on carbon steel-more bite than 5k, but drops through product like a higher grit stone. I used the same technique as the aoto and was surprised at how fast it was cutting and how much mud it made for a finishing stone. I used a cotton ball to collect the mud rolling off the sides and at the end I buffed the blade road out using horizontal passes with the cotton ball.
Far from perfect, but not bad for a first attempt. I was a little dissapointed that the contrast became so minimal. Not sure if that speaks to the cutting power of the abrasive. The hagane could have been shined a little more by using gentle back strokes perpendicular to the stone at a slightly elevated angle, but doing so would potentially risk stray maddening streaks. I still have cotton balls saturated in aoto mud and may reintroduce some fog to the jigane.
