I can't speak to this exact stone. I'd never buy a Japanese natural off eBay for that kind of money. That's me.

But, I have bought 3 much less expensive stones from this seller. One was a nagura that is both very pretty and very effective. I got it at a good price, about twice what an artifical nagura costs at Woodcraft. But it's about 3 times the size of the Woodcraft artificial nagura, so bonus.

The other two stones were sold as a Karasu and an Uchigumori. I walked in eyes wide open, buying at relatively low prices, just to see what quality of Japanese natural I could get for low prices.

The stones are genuine, and are pretty, but are soft. I would put mine in the 5 to 6K range, tops. About like a high-end BBW. The feel is nice, but they are slow, and usually have flaws of some kind (cracks, inclusions, chips, repairs, etc.). The seller is pretty up front about the flaws on his less expensive stones.

The seller is honest, ships fast, etc. But to sum up, all I would say is that I feel these are lower-end stones, maybe bought from the same stock as 330_mate (all the markings match, but I don't read kanji) and more or less priced accordingly. They are borderline for razor use, and definitely not finishers (to me). For the money I paid, a coticule would have been better, and a little cheaper.

These stones are usable Japanese naturals, but are nowhere in the same league as the Nakayama Asagi I got from OLD_SCHOOL. The Karasu is not even on the same planet as the Karasu from OLD_SCHOOL. But for the price, I didn't expect them to be going in, so I wasn't disappointed.

I just love honing stones of all kinds, and am living proof that you can't give rednecks money.