Quote Originally Posted by jnats View Post
My comments were in no way about Imanishi-San, he is a very honorable and nice man. I never was referring to him, or his labels. He handles stone from many mines btw, like most miners. I don't read much into stamps- just like you should not read too much into others opinions of mines, there are generalizations and subjective experiences with one stone to the next- my focus is mostly on acquiring Lv 4 and 4+ stones with 5+ fines, and Iromono and Kiita- these are most of my favorite stones. Just like we (hopefully) aren't all collecting the same favorite razor - a lot of people like really hard 5+ 5++stones- they're good and I have many, but hard stones don't get me nearly as excited. (except when they are fast) Ohira is western.

-Every stone must be tested and honed on by the customer- In Japan that's easy, outside-- only ever buy from sellers who advertise returns/exchanges for any reason (even if the stone is fine-just not for you) in a YMMV area like honing with something very very variable: nature. Marketing and stereotypes serve a function but do not determine the nature, they are at best rough averages. Do you know how much more the best in 100
'best' quality cutting kiita of the same color, saturation and mine cost? Maybe up 20% more without stamps- usually no more, but the best kiita can perform more than twice as well as the average. How do you find it? you hone- you look at the togidoro (slurry with iron filings) The yellow color alone drives prices through the roof, like stamps can do here. Every vendor has stamps, any street dealer can make them and procure them... our photocopy machines are designed in a partnership with the Federal Reserve and Xerox to leave micro 'thumbprints' (unique serial number specific ID's) to trace forgeries to explicit machine. Time spent learning a stamp will not help you to get a better stone I'm afraid.
I agree with you. Stamps don't mean something to me, but the two types for classification on "grade" of a stone, Imanishi uses piqued my interest.
Unfortunately, stones mostly covered with labels lose some of them, or appear less than clear after a little use, and some sellers end up unwilling to take them back, but again, I don't care about the labels but the stones. If this grade classification has a meaning on Imanishi stones is what I want to know, and I know that he is an honorable man.