Thread: Tsushima Hones - Anyone Try Any?

Tsushima Black Hones -

I'll try to be brief, I always have trouble with being brief when talking about stuff like this.

Eons ago, I got a tanba aoto as part of a japanese progression (for tools). In fact, I had at least two, maybe three of them.

Never liked it. It was the greasiest sloppiest stone I've used. Not very fast, and with the right touch it was almost a finisher. Never tried it for razors.

My favorite semi-finishers for razors are stones that are too soft or too coarse to be good finishers. Like okudo suita (that is really fast and leaves an edge just on the doorstep of finishing), or a narutaki/nakayama suita (not sure of the mine, no stamp) that I have that is great for woodworking tools.

I have super finishers covered, but I'd always like to find a good mid-grit stone that's not soft like tanba.

So I ordered one of the large black Tsushima hones from Takeshi Kuroda (who knows where it is at this point, I ordered it last week) as a prefinisher.

Anyone bought or used one? I'll post back here once I get it, though I know there is some variation in these and I can't exactly say "this hone is X hard and Y smooth and Z fine", because the next one probably won't be the same.

I have no idea how that stone may perform and have never owned one. If you purchased it from Aframes Takeshi Aoki is an excellent person to do business with and stands behind his products. If you do not know what the mailing status of your hone is ask the supplier.

I am looking forward to hearing what you think of it when you get to use it.

I've gotten stones from Takeshi Aoki - and a razor...and a kanayama strop. I agree, he's excellent.

I ordered this particular stone from Takeshi Kuroda, who is somewhere close to Miki in japan. I don't know where he is exactly, but I special ordered some tools from him a half a dozen years or so ago and he was able to visit the makers and make my requests, so he's around there somewhere.

Kuroda uses the name Metal Master (I've ordered half a dozen stones from Kuroda, too).

Different guy, though, but both very straightforward and with good value in what you get from them. I don't have any concerns about whether or not I'll get the stone, more curiosity about whether or not some folks have experience with them. I thought maybe (before ordering) that they were similar in coarseness to aoto, but do see some razors being honed on them on youtube, or honed using a tsushima nagura.

I think my desire to get a coarser stone in the 2k grit range is probably going to end in iyo nagura or something like that where the stone is a bit more porous, but it's frivolous spending.

Other than the aotos that I've gotten, this is the first stone I've ordered that didn't come from a mt. atago mine.

I've got a Tsushima. It certainly is not soft, nor is it equivalent to 2k. I have never gotten around to comparing its scratch pattern under the scope but it would end up higher than that--more likely in the 4-6k range I would guess. I like it as a sharpening stone and usually use it first with whatever coarse grit my fancy chooses in the form of a grit suspension or a rubbing stone such as an Amakusa.

When I want to do a natural progression, I start with a synthetic bevel setter and then use the Tsushima as the first stage of the natural progression. It works well for this purpose.

I have a tsushima black, which is higher grit imo than what your talking about. I have an ikarashi and 2 striped iyotos in the 2k range or so, i find they work terrific as a transition from synthetic to natural. Takeshi is a respected seller, Ive bought more than a few from him. Let us know how it works out.

They vary, on average ~4k finish
There are two kinds , mountain mined Tsushima (extinct now, so very rare to find), and sea Tsushima (what you can find online).

Tsushima’s are good consistent mid-range Japanese naturals.
Mike