Thread: The Bay Karasu stone..

You can have it. I'm good on stones for now.

Beautiful Stone!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

It came today, he over nighted it to me I guess.
I've bought several stones from him in the past. Just ask him questions, he answered me truthfully. This rock is more than spectacular. No bumps, cracks holes or anything that you can feel. That is mostly what I was worried about, thank God! It's everything you would hope it to be for a razor and more. I think he has a smaller one for $250 with less lines on it to scare people away. I really lucked out on this one, I can understand why people passed on this one. A lot of questionable lines and colors. But I guess I'm the only one who trusted him enough and was serious enough to ask ALL the questions about it before I laid down the cash. Sometimes you just got to do it, I've never bought a junker. I haven't laid a blade down on it yet but I can already tell it is going to be fine and fast. Oh, and the smell...... as soon as I opened it up my mind went right to a tranquil Japanese garden after a light misty rain...just delightful. I'm tempted to cut that corner off a little for a tomo. I don't want to blow it into pieces though. But by looking at it I can also tell it will respond favorably to my sawzall. Here's a few pictures of her.

Very nice find indeed. I would not encourage you to not cut off that corner, the resulting tomo will not suit the karasu but would most likely work better on a different stone. Tomo made from base stone for that base stone do not usually match up well and usually just scratch the base stone instead or making a nice creamy slurry. Get a different tomo from a different stone.

Does the skin on your stone have any black sparkly particles? If so can you see them as individual sparkles when holding it in the sunlight with just your naked eye?

I suspect that your karasu is from the Nakayama mine as indicated by the generally straightness of the namazu lines, and by the particularly distinct and bold black karasu pattern against the gray background. I have a documented Nakayama karasu with a very close and similar pattern.

best holiday wishes,

Alex Gilmore

Looks like a Jackson Pollock..
Very nice.

Originally Posted by alx

Very nice find indeed. I would not encourage you to not cut off that corner, the resulting tomo will not suit the karasu but would most likely work better on a different stone. Tomo made from base stone for that base stone do not usually match up well and usually just scratch the base stone instead or making a nice creamy slurry. Get a different tomo from a different stone.

Does the skin on your stone have any black sparkly particles? If so can you see them as individual sparkles when holding it in the sunlight with just your naked eye?

I suspect that your karasu is from the Nakayama mine as indicated by the generally straightness of the namazu lines, and by the particularly distinct and bold black karasu pattern against the gray background. I have a documented Nakayama karasu with a very close and similar pattern.

best holiday wishes,

Alex Gilmore

Alex if I recall he sold that stone rather quickly as it has toxic spots and he needed to dig them out and lap at every use. It went for a lot less than he paid. Also I think he was banned from this forum about six months ago.