Thread: Opportunity to buy a Japanese stone while I`m here ....in ....Japan .

Hello all ,

Have two stones back at my home in Vancouver and still fairly new to honing . Had limited success ( as in not ended up in the hospital after honing and shaving ...yet ) with the Shapton 10,000 grit , I bought last time i was here for a year ( killer deal on Rakuten free shipping and was less than $60 Cdn ) .

As I am keen to have a really good natural stone for keeping a sharp edge ( the Belgian whetstones arguably rank high ) , and since there is a knife shop in my town that has a full room of natural stones , why not .

I went to the knife shop in 2011 to ask about a sharpening stone for razors ..., and the bloke looked at me and said ( my japanese is functional ..can read and write more than i can speak fluently - arse backwards i know ) he said you cannot do that , it is for professionals only . Then I said agreed , but I want to learn and need to buy a stone to start .
He never did sell me a stone . Hoping this time to get one ha ha .

I will go their on Monday and take some photos with the kanji names and if anyone is kind enough to enlighten me on
which brands will do , I will be very grateful .

Only using my DE razors here , had to travel light . Looking forward to getting back to Van and my straight razors ..although it will be eight months since I used one . Hospital visit may ensue .

Thanks all and cheers,

Scott

You don't need to necessarily know kanji, unless price is important or you're a fan of a particular mine.

What you need is a seller who is familiar with stones that are used for razors, so you can get a stone that's very even, that doesn't self slurry and that is very fine. Any of the mt atago mines will do fine, and I'm sure there are stones that are not from the famous mines that would also work fine if a dealer who is a pro at dealing fine stones would vouch for them.

To me, the best stones for razors are a bit hard and fine for general knife use, and there are a lot of softer sloppy stones that knife folks like that you won't want for a razor at all.

I wouldnt buy one from Japan. I would get one from a reputable dealer who will exchange it if you dont like it. Once you leave there, like it or not, its yours. But its your money so do as you please.

Arigato gozaimashita to both of you gents . I will be at that shop tomorrow and
have a look and talk with the owner . If I can get a decent stone (10,000¥ - 100$ is my limit ) that may do the trick ......

Will report back tomorrow night .

Cheers,

Scott

Best of luck, be sure to share photos if you do pick up a stone! I've seen some of Murray Carter's videos where they tour the mine and look for some stones of their own to bring back. That would be an awesome experience!

Right , for those of you waiting with baited or bad breath...here goes .
Popped round to the knife shop and asked the bloke to see his hones room .
We went round the side (undercover shopping lane that has shops on either side ) he opens up the sliding aluminum door , and there it is as I remembered.

Now he does not let me go in much and bothers not with a light . I can make out the shelves on the left stocked with boxed synthetics and on the right naturals on display . He shows me one stone hard as nails for $80 ...then says others are more or less . He was nice but seemed wary of me and perhaps believed my
mental capacity to be damaged - as to explain my exuberance for a forgotten way of shaving .

Ended up not buying one,and no photographs either .

So I will leave it for now and when back in Vancouver meet one of the local fine
gents to see their setups .

Thanks to all who replied .

Cheers,

Scott

I'd have asked to try the hard stone. With hard dense stones, you're really looking for a stone with a little bit of feel and no scratchiness. If you have that, and you can bring hard steel up to a very bright visual polish, you've pretty much got a winning razor stone.

The slightly softer and very fine stones (that are much less common) are a little more classy to use, but a little softness and too much is a delicate balance.

In terms of getting a nutty look, most of these guys are used to selling knives to natives and tourists. They might come across a razor nut once in a great while between hundreds of people buying tools and knives.

Presume that you're probably not close to miki, nigata, kyoto or tokyo where you are, as there are probably still some folks there making things. Though in tokyo probably only dealers. Tokyo used to have a strong trade in tools, and made some of the finest super-hard chisels ever made (ichichiro, kiyotada, etc). It's apparently too expensive to have a makers shop there, now, thus miki and nigata are more common for tools, probably knives, too but I don't know for sure about knives. kyoto for stones, of course.

At any rate, you'll have no trouble finding mail order razor-appropriate stones when you're back, anyway. they might not be local to here, but we don't have any shortage of them coming over here from japan.

Shame you didn't score a blinder Scott. Personally, I'd keep going back and make it a mision to win this guy over to get into his hone den. Bowl him over with your knowledge of kamisori and say you want to keep the tradition alive and well for future generations.Japan would be my ultimate destination to see/purchase natural stones, I'd love to get one from there some day.

If you wind up back in the Van empty handed perhaps it's time to score a sweet Belgian whetstone, I know you've been toying with the idea for a few years now. Pull the trigger and try it out, if you don't like it I'll buy it off you...

Thank you Mr. Sasquatch for your kind words . Aye the Belgian rock may be the way . I'll keep you in mind for when I rewrite my will " and the key to my shaveden vault door I leave to................" . Ha ha

Cheers matey

Arigato gozaimashita DaveW . Lots of ash here (no not a typo .....) :

Japanese volcano: Mount Sakurajima eruption blankets Kagoshima city in ash - YouTube