Originally Posted by
DaveW
I would make some statement about how you don't have to buy japanese stones that are expensive....
... but I haven't exactly been able to stick to that.
My favorite hone was only $165, though, and I had an ozuku piece from CKTG years ago that would've been as good as anything as a hard hone to be used with a nagura progression, and it was $70. That doesn't by any means suggest that the next rock from there will be any good, though, as I've got ozukus (coarser and less dense) that are tool level of fineness and would never finish a razor well.
I've got other rocks that cost a lot more and were designed specifically for tools, and they're great for that. I'm sure the $500+ rocks designed for razors are great, too, but a lot of their value comes from attributes that don't have anything to do with performance over a carefully selected smaller rock thats under 2 bills.
IME, as a longer-term buyer of japanese naturals than has been the case on shave forums, a lot of rocks that weren't that well thought of (tomae looking plain green rocks that were common and a few hundred bucks) are all of the sudden much much more expensive. Even fujibato, who used to have very good examples of very hard nakayama hones with mild cosmetic issues for about $100 or so has pretty much vaporized those offerings. There's either small teaser koppa or there is very expensive with attributes that don't mean anything for actual sharpening, but that mean a lot for someone trying to collect rare rocks.
Takeshi Kuroda also sells a lot of nice very hard shoubu stones, and charges on the low side, but because the demand is up (pushing up those common green stones) so much now, his stones don't last long.