Thread: Jnats, Fake Stamps and Soft Stones

I have been out of buying stones for a while, but in the last couple of days, I've bought about 15 from japan. I see on the yahoo auction site over there, it's pretty common to have poorly applied stamps and call a stone a maruka. They don't sell for that much. I knew from previous experience that the use of the stamps had loosened even among reputable dealers.

It has gotten to the point now, when I look around, that people are not just claiming stones to be Maruka stamped, but to be Hatanaka stones, too, which is a new level.

I figured I'd get a bunch of stones from japan and distribute them at cost, whatever they turn out to be, and maybe keep one or two (i have a soft spot for suita that are fast cutting - they're sort of the washita of the east, which I know won't excite shavers).

When I went back out to ebay, I am surprised at the brashness of the stamp use. Really overt, and often with stones that I'm sure would never have gotten a maruka stamp due to lack of uniformity, common stone aspects (you know what i'm talking about if you've been buying a while - you can spot a stone that may have the characteristics to have been stamped in the old days - they are a cut above and uncommon).

It just sort of makes you look at the listings and say "wow, things have gone this far down. That's a shame".

On the bright side, before I went over there (to the japanese site) and bought a bunch of stuff, I remember in the past people talked about relatively small maruka marked stones that had a cosmetic flaw or three being a $3500 stone. I don't think anyone touting that ever paid a fifth of that for their stones. At least the dilution of the stamping will maybe knock some of that off, as in this community (of shavers), if someone talks long enough about a stone being $3500, a beginner with some money will eventually get taken. I don't care for that kind of thing. It isn't in keeping with sharing knowledge and being a community.

Years ago when I started woodworking, there was some truth (this is before Jnats became so popular with beginner knife enthusiasts, etc) in stones being sold. Strong stones with good action and reasonable hardness brought money. Soft sloppy stones didn't. They're junk. These days, I see a lot of those junk stones being sold for premium prices and I guess you could call that market making, but I call it suckering. You can buy a soft two pound stone on japan yahoo with no mine mark for $60. When I see things like very soft hiderayama stones (hiderayama having been lowly regarded before due to the low cutting power of the stones, and the boring common colors) being gussied up with cashew lacquer and stamps and sold for many hundreds of dollars, it makes me a little queasy.