Recent Jnats - A thread of new stones

[sloanwinters]

interested thread to read. well above my current pay-grade, but enlightened.

thank you gentlemen.

[mainaman]

Honing with tomo, not straight off of the stone, but after linen and leather (which is probably why the edge is visible).

Attachment 267984

The scratches suggest to me that the slurry shouldn't be allowed to clear off quite as much. When I sold my first round of stones (I got out of all but suitas), I gave my tomos away with them. All I have is the tomos I made out of an ozuku stone, but I have a couple of soft finishing stones coming in the mail (small ones) to cut up and look forward to giving this another go with fresh goods.

The slurry should have the consistency of skim milk, that is the best description I have seen used.

[DaveW]

That's probably about where it was at the end of the honing. I didn't let it dilute fully, and the stone is settling in. I have to admit that the shave was quite pleasant, but a little more keen than some of my prior efforts.

I have no clue if this stone was ever stamped hatanaka - I'd be more willing to believe it was if the box had the usual label on top of it. But it's a nice stone in that I can't find anything outwardly wrong with it. Anything that you can't find with a well selected stone somewhere else at 2/3rds the price? It doesn't seem so. This stone was $550. If it was true hatanaka and as large as it is (just under 40mm thick), I think it would've been more money.

I probably won't keep it, but selling it for what I paid could be difficult due to no top stamps. I have lots more time to learn it, as I've got a bunch of razors coming. Maybe I'll find something out I don't know yet. Two sessions of honing is about 20 short of really learning a stone.

[DaveW]

I got probably 7 or 8 more stones last night, but didn't open the boxes. I've been figuratively dumpster diving in japan, but also buying some nice ones. Here's one that someone said they got from a barber shop, but I figured for what they were asking, that was probably just a line.

A little on the dark side to be called kiita, but lighter than some dealers' cutoffs (the seller made no such claim).

to my surprise, it is about as fine as any other fine hone I've ever had, it was perfectly flat and broken in on the surface - and hard enough to hold onto its own grit. Someone had been using it. Microscope pictures will follow at some point.



It is not as small as it looks, and fortunately devoid of fake stamps. Somewhere around a KG and about 85mm wide and 150 long (guessing a little):



I didn't get the other ones out of their boxes yet, but that will come little by little as I get a look at what each stone does. For price reference, this one cost me about $80 (including shipping), and is one of the reasons I don't have much respect for people selling fake stamp stones for $400. I would pay $150 for a stone like this if I saw it in person and had a chance to use it, but the risk of buying from antique pickers in japan is there, so I wouldn't pay that from them.