Thread: New japanese natural stone Shobu

Newly acquired Japanese Natural stone, described by Vendor as a Shobu-Asagi-Karusu-Tamamoku.

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I have added to my two other Japanese Natural stones (Ozuku Asagi and Wakasa prev described) with this Shobu. On one of the above it is shown half wet, so you get an idea of why the lengthy description. It 210 x 78 x 27 and is 1100 grams. It has one useable side. I have sealed it with numerous coats of Shellac. This stone was described as hard and very fine. It is not as hard as the Ozuku (Narrowly) but is extremely fine in particle size. I took a moderate amount of time to lap it, say 15ins as it was fairly well flat to start with. I used it just now on a Dovo Bismarck, as a test, just adding fifty or so strokes to an already sharp razor, and it shaved nicely. I had a look at the edge at 30x and is showing the typical kasumi finish you would expect, however it will benefit from a bit more time on the stone. This stone is different in feel and feedback to the other two jnats I have, if anything it is quieter in feel, maybe a tad more elasticity in it's surface. None the less I anticipate this one will work well on softer steel razors, and looks the goods for water only finishing, jumping from a 10k synthetic. So far so good, I like the prospects of this stone.

Something went wrong with pic 3 at the bottom. I tried to delete but couldn't.

Nice stones, I will be looking to get one of those in the later future. Enjoy the stones

Looks very clean, should make a very nice finisher when you learn how to maximize its potential. As you say, a bit more time on the stone should do well for your razor. I assume this will darken the kasumi somewhat. I would guess on pure water, you may get a very sharp edge that isn't very comfortable. Of course, this is all an assumption, judging by your description of hardness. I had a Shobu like that - hard, but not too hard, softer than Ohzuku (which can get ultra hard) and it did an excellent job at finishing razors on very light slurry. I would rarely get an edge I liked on pure water.

Tamamoku pattern is very pretty, I am looking for one to add to the collection, purely for its looks.

From Japanese Whetstone Glossary | TomoNagura.Com | Keith V. Johnson
Tamamoku: Circular Burls. This is a rare and beautiful Toishi pattern that emulates the figuring in Tamamoku cedar.

Thanks for the info. I will certainly try varying the slurry, I've heard others say light slurry works better than clear water. Those meanings in Keith Johnson glossary are very handy, as this jnat thing can get confusing. Cheers Bob.

I don't know if anything is hard and uniform that's harder than an ozuku at the hardest level. They are hard enough to be undesirable unless you are running through nagura (but you could do that on a $10 piece of jasper, which is several orders harder yet). I have had nakayama stones as hard, but none that ever felt that great and they were maybe a little more aggressive than the ozuku (they feel skippy and scratchy when they're like that).

I'm not a fan of shoubu that are too many notches off of 5-ish level, they seem to be a bit more skippy than something like a decent suita, and the surfaces fracture in strange ways under tools (not a problem for razors, though). That, however, looks like a very nice stone, and if it's just off of top hardness, it should be nice to use.

Is your stone showing kasumi finish with clear water laps, or is that from slurry/tomonagura?

Dave, when I bought the Ozuku Asagi I specifically wanted a hard plus stone. Not quite as unresponsive as Jasper...but a definite last stone finisher. It is just what I wanted and I have shaved off that edge and I'm happy with the extra level of comfort compared to say a Suehiro 20k. About this Shobu, it is very fine particle size, and it was characterised on Takeshi Aoki's scale at 8.8 which is a lv 5 on others scales. The test I did was just to feel the stone, to get an idea of how it felt through the blade, so I spent time on moderate slurry, looked under the loupe, checked again with light slurry, And again after some clear water. In a direct comparison to the harder Ozuku, the feel was different, I found it a little less hard, not much, but in my limited experiences there was a difference. I am going to, do another razor on it today, where I intend to go from a synthetic 5 k edge varying slurry and see if I can come up with a shaving edge. I do believe I will. But I don't have a set of nagura to use,(that is my next step).
This particular Shobu, is smooth under foot, no Skippy feel, and especially with thicker slurry, feels as creamy as any of my stones. It's place in my stone collection us unclear just yet, but with a misty slurry I reckon it will produce a nice edge. (as mentioned)
Remember though, for me, I am not so experienced with jnats yet, I'm feeling my way, but with several years of honing with synthetics under my belt I know how to hone. So I had an idea of what I wanted, and that was to try a variety of stones, with a view to getting finishing stones, so I went with amuch harder Ozuku, a Wakasa (also hard) and this Shobu. The Shobu being the most unpredictable of the three. So far, it's indeed different, but where it will end up, I'm not sure just yet. I won't be edge chasing with these, I'm awake as to what likely results are there, and I am so far enjoying the types of shaves naturals give. It's a learning experience at the moment, and as I said, I don't fully understand the intricacies of nagura use, but I'm getting there...thanks for your comments. Bob.

The stones I have been speaking of are in this picture below, together to give a meaningful comparison.



Hopefully, comparing these, it might help when considering the likely place these stones take, from the very hard Ozuku to the Wakasa, then the Shobu.

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Every stone I have is different. I'm not sure I could tell any of them apart by the shaving edge, but I could sure tell which is which by the feel of the lapping. What aoki calls 8.8 should be plenty fine for razors, especially if the hardness is there to get clear water. I can't remember if I've ever had a hard shoubu, it is only the softer ones that I put tools on (lv 4 from takeshi kuroda). Their fracture lines are like what you'd expect if you took a carbide or diamond scribe and scraped it on glass. Not only does the scratch occur, but it fractures at the edge and becomes much larger than you'd expect. But that will never happen with a razor, and there was otherwise nothing wrong with those stones other than their softness. Every stone I have that I can finish a razor with, I can figure out a way to do it and get a good edge every time or very close. Some of the great stones pretty much, you rub a razor on them just about any way you want and they make a quality edge.

I have given up on nagura other than tomonagura on the harder stones (not because there's anything wrong with it, it just takes longer). I work a new razor on a washita only for the bevel set and then the final stone. That's it. It's fast and I have better consistency that way because the washita doesn't leave many surprises on the edge (the grooves are relatively wide and shallow) to clean up. I'm sure a nagura progression is fun, but in my experience, washita stones make better prefinishers. There's something about them. They are like the good medium natural stone that the mines in japan just can't quite seem to cough up. Responsive to technique, and either fast or relatively fine (depending on how you choose to use them) but gentle on the edge.

I have no experience with wakasa, but that one looks a lot like some stones from nakayama.

The ozuku looks gigantic!

I do not see the karasu in that Shobo. Is it in the layers below the surface?