Thread: Toxic hones...

Where to go to though from here? There are so many different things to talk about with these rocks. I'm up for it!!

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Are you filling the voids, if so with what?

CA?

Bee's wax was used in the past.

Originally Posted by Kees

Bee's wax was used in the past.

Oh, Yea! That's all I would need to see is a bee climbing out of my suita.....

I was going to start a new thread for this topic because it is slightly different. But in the interest of keeping it all in one place I'll go ahead and post it here. How or why do they end up being sold? Toxic jnats that is. Is there a grading system or binning procedure for these nasties? After they pull them out of the mountain and end up in the shop, what happens from there? I mean, I know that all jnats can display toxic behavior but there are visual indications that show some are to be more likely toxic than others. What do they do with them? The only thing I know for sure right now is that some stone get special stamps indicating their worthiness. How do they deal with the others and why do a lot of them end up for sale on different websites, ebay mostly. I'm fairly certain that these T-jnats are known to be bad and the seller will either put no information about the stone when their selling it or say that there is a possibility that this jnat for sale could have toxicities. I have been sold, to date, 4 T-jnats that I purchased off the bay for little money where only several pictures of the item for sale are shown and not really much of a description and no mention of T. Matter of fact, I have never seen one seller come right out and say, this jnat has toxic inclusions. Why the hell can't they just tell you? I mean, its pretty stupid to risk a negative feedback. Some sellers say things like, because of the nature of Japanese whetstones, it is impossible to say whether or not this jnat has any badies in it. When in fact, the stone was probably taken out of use because of or some that are known to be toxic. Then they let you decide whether or not to take a chance. Well, the stones that I took a chance on were well under the hundred dollar mark and felt that if the stone had an inclusion I would deal with it myself. Now dealing with these toxic inclusions is a whole other topic but I have not come across one that could not be used for sharpening razors without a little work with a carbon tipped scribe and fiberglass pencil.
What are your thoughts, if any?

Moved from "Honing" to "Hones"

My thoughts are if you're buying something cheap off ebay, you already know what you're getting yourself into. Or should at any rate.

Sure it would be nice if they came forward and said, "Yeah...these are normally a $300 hone, but this one has imperfections so it's marked down to get it off my hands." But if you're looking at something that should be 2,3,4 times what you're paying...it's reasonable to expect a defect.

And you've already covered Naturals are what they are. To my knowledge they're graded the same way they've always been graded. Split it, cut it into hones, grade it by what you saw during that process, which ultimately is only what's on the exterior of the hone in question, and perhaps taking into account what's in the material/hones that surrounded it. Unless they've put in the money to get radiographical equipment to literally check the interior, there' s just no way of knowing what's beneath the surface.

I wish I could find it, but someone posted a very good episode of I think 'Strange Japan' or something of that nature, where they followed around a fellow that appeared to be operating a one man operation digging Jnats out of a mountain, cutting and shaping them for the most part by himself. Most of the quarries are closed, and quarrying the hones seems to be a dying art. One that's mostly done the 'old' way - by hand.

I'd be amazed if they were allowed to do it any other way but traditionally. Just like Japanese swords are made from tamahagane, which is only smelted in a traditional tatara, which still uses the iron rich satetsu for ore.

Lets try to stay on topic here shall we?.....Swords?

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

Lets try to stay on topic here shall we?.....Swords?

We are on topic. That was an example of how things like this are kept traditional in japan. Or have I diverted it into steel, smelters or iron ore? We might have 5 topics now.

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

So, your going to just stumble in here and ask for pictures without adding any content of your own? Not even a related story of such toxic happenings in your own life? Thats' pretty selfish.....

that is a somewhat abrasive response