Thread: Karasu Japanese Whetstone

just curious on member's thoughts when it comes to purchasing a stone like this?
Japanese Natural Whetstone Toishi Nakayama Mizuasagi Karasu Ult 5585 | eBay

It says it is a harder stone which from my own research favors someone with a good amount of honing experience. Does anyone own stones like these or would I be throwing away $500.00

A Karasu is a collectors stone, the nice patterns on it won't do any good for your sharpening, no harm either if it's ok.
I don't know what you got right now but there is loads of nice stones much cheaper than this...
And at last, the seller... Please Google 330mate before you decide to buy this stone!

If you're new to honing , IMHO you're better off buying a man made hone/s of a known grit rating . You should be able to get a good shave from any 8k hone , and great shaves from the higher grits . If you can't , then you need to improve your honing . If your honing needs improvement , expensive , exotic , natural hones aren't going to make it any better .

+ 1 on dave5225s post, and when I think about it, if you need to ask about a stone like that you shouldn't buy it!
Well it's your money but I think you can spend it wiser, and if you have $500 to spend on stones, people here can help you out with some better stones.
But until we know what you got, want and how experienced you are at honing I'll just say, hang on to your money!

Yeah I'm definately new to honing so I will stay away from exotic stones and go with something man made. Thanks for the info

Good luck BostonBlades!
There is lots of info here about different stones and hones, you'll find something I'm sure.

Originally Posted by BostonBlades

Yeah I'm definately new to honing so I will stay away from exotic stones and go with something man made. Thanks for the info

Wise move . It may be a very good stone but will those lines hurt the edge of a razor or are they simply cosmetic ?
You need to do a lot of research before buying Jnats. In the meantime synthetics will get you shaving.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Wise move . It may be a very good stone but will those lines hurt the edge of a razor or are they simply cosmetic ?
You need to do a lot of research before buying Jnats. In the meantime synthetics will get you shaving.

Well said, There is actually a local place that specializes in honing straight razors I just located. I'm headed there Thursday to have a blade honed and pick up a starter kit for honing and a dvd. The jnats are pretty but thats like putting the keys to a stick shift in a new drivers hands.... it'll only end badly, haha.

My starter set was a Norton 220/1k, 4k/8k and a DMT D8C continuous diamond plate to flatten the waterstones. If I had it to do all over again I would get the same setup except I would substitute the Chosera 1k for the norton 1k. The naniwa superstones and the Shaptons are also favorites for some folks.

I first saw one or those Karasus a few years back and was really tempted because it is such a beautiful stone. Never did get one though because of the expense and I'm getting the results I need with what I've got.

This stone thing can become a real acquisition disorder if you're inclined that way. Best to go easy to begin with and make sure you're going to stick with it before you sink too many $ into it.

+ 1 on jimmyHAD

Don't forget that the "simple" stones is not something that soon will be passed down for better stones, a basic set up like yours will be good to have whatever else you get.
A good 1K is a good 1K, you can't substitute it with a "better" 60K!