Hairline cracks (?) on my Naniwa White 8k stone

One day some fine lines appeared on my stone.
Has got a bit of a marbelled effect, but can't really feel anything whenever i touch it.
Don't even know what has caused it.
I wonder whether i should worry about them or just keep on using the stone.
Shall i just turn it over and use the other side?

 

Have you been soaking it? If so...... STOP! Any stone, say over 2K, should never be soaked because it causes cracking. All finishing stones should be used as "splash & goes" and never soaked.

 

thats not entirely true... many stones over 2k can and need to be soaked. Its more a function of what kind of binding agent is used in the stone. I.e. resinoid based stones and magnesia based stones should generally not be soaked (of course there are some exceptions).

 

If the one you mean is the 8k Junpaku Snow-white, it's magnesium bound like the Choseras and hair lines are all too familiar. The stone got too wet, inner parts catched some humidity, and the outer layer got dry before the inner layers. Solution: avoid the inner part to get wet AND avoid fast drying of the outside. No soaking, wipe off if you don't use it immediately. The hair lines won't disturb your sharpening. See it as a warning: the next step is a really broken stone.

 

Thank you all for the replies!
Yes, it is the Naniwa Snow-white.
Never soaked it, but once i have let the water run on it for a few minutes.
Was a bad idea.
Been using Naniwa SS stones for a few years and never had any problems with them, but those ones are resin bound vs this one which is magnesia bound, so might be more delicate and prone to cracking.

 

Those spider web-looking marks are common with many stones. They do not affect performance and can be easily buffed out with a nagura.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, JB........... like I said in an earlier post "with Jon's superior product knowledge....... you just can't go wrong."

 

Interesting to know how careful you need to be with this stone...

 

I'll kick up an old thread here just to add that I have two Snow Whites and both have crazed. One seems to be more on the surface, but on the other you can follow the lines from the top to bottom. Like Jay said, it doesn't seem to affect the performance of the stone for knife use. I never soak mine, but there are many days when it stays wet for quite some time when I'm doing a lot of honing. I wipe mine down with a towel after each use and then set it out to air dry.

 

These stones ALWAYS craze at least on the surface if not crack down deep too. Best to mount this one if it's not already done from the maker.