Thread: Oozuku tomae

Had a small finishing jnat and large midstone jnat, sold the small finisher and picked up this. It is from the Japan stone, was ozuku for a good price because one corner had an indention on the back and on the top lair there is small area not flat yet (will be after not to long). Got the stone wet made medium amount of slurry then some x strokes. After that made small slurry and used thin clear tape to slightly lift blade of edge and few of those strokes to finish. Didn't think my first go round would be successful but the edge is very amazing. Here are pics of the stone, I am happy to have found a jnat finisher I like. Will probably still finish some razors on Thuri bout but this will be main finisher. I do plan on sealing it but will have to wait for now.
Link to the posting for other pictures and information on stone http://www.thejapanstone.com/591_Ooz...apanSTone.html

Alex is a great guy !!!

That is the benefit of going to a dealer like Alex. I could go straight to Japanese auctions and buy 5 stones like that and only one of them would really be a good stone, and the sellers would all say "barber, nakayama" or something like that because they bring the most money even when buyers know that the claim is probably false (sort of like the fake stamps - you can know the stamps are fake, but people will still bid more for them, anyway - I hope that changes soon).

One of my favorite things is very good cutting Japanese stones that have physical flaws, because those flaws will never make a difference to you. Even if they do, you can work around them by mounting the stone in or on plaster of paris or something. Finding a stone that pretty much makes a shaver out of any razor that you rub on it, no matter which way you rub it (and getting something bigger than a small $300-$600 y/g thuri at the same time and for less) is really the cat's pucker. A flawless capable stone is nice, too, but you pay a lot for that physical flawlessness.

Yea he is very nice and I like the tomo nagura he sent with it. I will say it is not the prettiest of hones but it is extremely fun to hone on it. I have not yet tried nagura progression on it but will be trying it out soon. I also have a large tomo that is on softer side and I think I could just go from 1k to botan to tomo and it be good to go but I will have to test that out later.
Also the hone sits flat but I usually hold it in one hand and hone with the other when I am using it.

Link to original posting of stone
http://www.thejapanstone.com/591_Ooz...apanSTone.html

Christian,

That top corner is not going to matter as the rest of the stones real estate looks very good and their is a fair amount of it, looks very nice indeed..

Nice chunk, fair deal too!

Yep, I wouldn't lose years of material off the rest of the hone to flatten that corner. If you use it a lot the corner will eventually go away as you flatten it over the decades.

Cheers, Steve

Yea I am leaving it as is. I don't really want to mess with the surface of the hone or smooth it out after diamond plate lapping. Also where the spot is doesn't really mess with my honing strokes. Right now though I am deciding on if I want to seal it with clear nail polish or not. I like how the stone feels and I don't want to take the time to seal jnat. Although I feel like it might be smart idea for area that is undercut since it looks like it could chip slightly in the area. I obviously want stone to last as long as it can but if I know it will last say 10-20 years without sealing I think by then I will end up having another finishing jnat I add to collection to rotate between. I think I will probably end up not sealing it just because I prefer the feel of unsealed jnat but time will tell I suppose.

As Steve advised don't worry, if you honed a razor everyday and lightly lapped it every time you still would most likly never wear it out.

Christian, I would seal it. Doesn't hurt and doesn't take a lot of time either. Seal the sides completely, seal the bottom along the sides (leave "a hole" in the middle, say around 30% of the surface area). This is a trick I learned from a good friend, who heard it from an experienced Japanese togishi. I suppose it makes sense... lets the stone "breathe", drain water more easily, if any gets trapped inside. It all depends on the hardness of the stone, personal preferences, so as usual, YMMV.