Thread: Nakayama search

Looking for a pink colored Nakayama. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Nothing on ebay. Thanks.

Dont know if they have what your looking for, but a reputable seller. http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/

Originally Posted by Martin103

Dont know if they have what your looking for, but a reputable seller. http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/

+1
Maksim knows stones.
And he can get pretty much whatever you want.

I have to say pink nakayama most likely does not exist. I have never seen one and I have seen a lot of Jnats, there are variations oith orange/yellow colors. The closest you will get to pink is Ohira Renge Suita, the renge is pink/purple but they are not typically razor hones. You may be able to find an Iromono colored nakayama with pinkish hue but they are kind of rare and will cost a bunch assuming you find a good one for razors. Maksim is the person to ask for help.

Alex had two large pink nakayama stones years ago. They were priced accordingly, though. IIRC, in the $2000-$4000 range for a stone about a kg.

Pretty stones, though.

A-new_bench_okudo_mine

(they're in the sale history at this link).

IIRC, I've seen some narutaki stones with some red/pink hue, too. I'd be concerned looking for a pink stone that you'd just get a fine stone from another mine with a nakayama stamp on it. I guess if it was a good one, though, nobody would ever notice the difference.

I have one, similar in color to Alex's but small, about 4" square. The color is called murasaki or strawberry color, Typically these stones are softer and considered tool stones or razor pre-finishers. Exceptions exist for everything of course, but a true pink stone hard enough to finish a razor would be uncommon.

That said, mine will finish a razor on clear water, but better edges can be had.

Cheers, Steve

Out of curiosity, why does it have to be pink? Most people look for hard-soft, fast-slow, fine-coarse stones. It's not like the Eschers as far as I know. I can't imagine how a low concentration of iron oxide on the surface of a light greyish stone would have a specific ability other stones don't have.
From what I remember, it's a relatively usual color for the highest, soft layers of some mines.

Yeah there is quite a bit of pink akapin around. Maybe some suita with a pinkish hue besides renge. A harder tomae though would be a sweet find.

Originally Posted by dcaven

Looking for a pink colored Nakayama. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Nothing on ebay. Thanks.

As far as I can figure out, the color stones with solid color and not just the small renge red spots, but full-on color stones are from the shallower layers of the mine structure. The colors are the results of leaching minerals from the top soil, and oxidation of those water born minerals and metals. The akapin is one and the shallowest layers so we see these color stones as akapin type (also a tomae type stone) but there are other slightly deeper layers that can show color too.

Hardness in a stone is due to compression, there are harder yellow/kiita and softer yellow/kiita stones, same as pinks, but I think you will find that these colors are usually in these shallower layers. By its very nature water will do what it may, and all of the old mines were unique situtations so the water table and seepage patterns will show up differently from mine to mine. It seems that the good yellow kiita layers, that are deeper and harder stones are rarer. I can only guess that ancient seepage of these water borne materials did get sucked into deeper formantions and possible in part because all of the mines were on hill/mountain sides. This helps to explain the general patterns, but there were anomalies.

Alex

Originally Posted by DaveW

Alex had two large pink nakayama stones years ago. They were priced accordingly, though. IIRC, in the $2000-$4000 range for a stone about a kg.

Pretty stones, though.

A-new_bench_okudo_mine

(they're in the sale history at this link).

IIRC, I've seen some narutaki stones with some red/pink hue, too. I'd be concerned looking for a pink stone that you'd just get a fine stone from another mine with a nakayama stamp on it. I guess if it was a good one, though, nobody would ever notice the difference.

I should clarify, I wouldn't be afraid of getting a fake from alex or someone like So, but if there was one floating around on ebay or for cheap somewhere that could have come from a disreputable source, I'd wonder about it.