Hi,
I'm about to buy a stone (with nagura), but I do not know exactly what its value is.
It should be a Nakayama but I do not see the specific symbol. Can you help me?
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Hi,
I'm about to buy a stone (with nagura), but I do not know exactly what its value is.
It should be a Nakayama but I do not see the specific symbol. Can you help me?
Hopefully a JNat expert can provide some information about the stone.
Has the seller tested the stone? Did they give you any information about how the stone performs? Two stones from the same quarry can still perform very differently.
Looks very good -buy it . I think this patern of round is specifik for Nakyama mine . Lookf hard and very fast stone .
JNATS can be tricky as not all are razor quality stones so you have to trust the seller, I have gone thru lots of stones until I found a few that had no issues and did an excellent job.
Does the seller allow you to test the stone with a possible return if you don’t like it, i was lucky enough to deal with some straight up sellers that allowed me to test the stones I was buying and my favorite go to stone can with two tested tomos’s that’s a fast finisher and yes it’s a Nakayama Kiita.
Most folks think JNATS need to be hard and harder the better but I had a soft kiita at one time that was excellent but in the end it did a better job as a prefinsher than final finisher, I was taught the best way to test a JNAT is using a diamond plate for slurry generation as this gives you the truest base stone slurry to work with then dilute down to straight water to get the best edge possible.
As far as the stone you have pictured it does have a Nakayama look to it but looks don’t honestly mean much and in all honesty their just names and don’t mean a lot, some sellers throw the more popular mine names around to get peoples interest and help the sale but that’s not a bad thing if it’s truly a Nakayama but just because it is does not mean it will hone a razor well and that’s where you have to put time in with the stone, when I was getting new stones I would take two test razors and hone, shave and repeat for about two weeks on the same stone using varying slurries to get the best possible edge and then make a command decision if it was worth the cost.
It has Nakayama & Maruka stamps.
If the stamps are genuine it should be of the highest quality.
If the stamps are authentic, the stone should be a high quality "for razors" hone.Quote:
Originally Posted by mihai
The one who sells it is expert in sharpening knives, has many stones. For razors has less experience.
Someone else told me that the ideograms are not set up well and that more than ever the stone comes from Russia from a counterfeit expert.
The owner says the stone starts harder, you get the feeling that he does not do anything then suddenly starts getting it from metal.
The stone has the mark Maruichi, which does not guarantee it would be an Nakayama stone, but does not rule out the possibility.
I have just noticed this name (Maruichi) in the link it gave me, even though the page is not mentioned. Do you know anything about this page? https://www.gentlemansblade.com/prod...ing-whetstone/
My personal suggestion is contact Alex with Japan Stone, he’s a great guy to deal with and has a try before buy policy on JNATS and he tests every stone he sells and matches a tomo with it but like I said you have to put the time in with the stone to figure it out.
I do not see a Kan pattern on the stone in the link.Quote:
Originally Posted by mihai
You have to understand that currently there is a significant amount of stones with fake Nakayama stamps being sold. Why is that? Because the reputation of the mine for quality stones, which means higher profits on sales. Most stones out there right now are freshly stamped, and that is easy to tell. So all of a sudden there is a huge influx of Nakayama stone when the mine was closed in the 60's of the last century?
A lot of the sellers online have no clue what they are selling, I doubt many know what a quality Jnat is because they may have never tried one.
The Russsian guy is the worst, I am yet to see a credible stamped nakayama from him. Just look at his stone labels and it is clear the whole operation is fishy.
What's the price on that stone? It looks like a tool stone to me, so expecting it to be on the softer side. It may well be fine, but it may not be what you're looking for.
The Mejiro nagura looks legit, although it's a bad picture and the Asano stamp can be barely seen properly.
I'd ask him to send you a video of him raising slurry with that nagura on that stone. If what you see is mostly slurry from the nagura, then the stone is hard enough. May be a lot to ask, but it may be a lot of money as well....
Also, if you’re buying from The Gentleman’s Blade, and this is resold from the Russian seller, who is also a reseller, then you’ll pay a lot of premium... just saying, may not be great price-performance ratio there.
+1 to that. might consider looking at some other sites before purchasingQuote:
Originally Posted by Srdjan
I don't really know a lot about these stones except for the few I own I have been lucky to have good performers. I have no stamped stones and my paranoia of fakes seems to have been alerted when seeing the link you posted. The stamps on the linked stone look as if they were put on yesterday and as Mainaman pointed out the mines were closed some fifty years ago. I just cant see even a stone sitting on a shelf in the best of circumstances can have such crisp clean stamps. Inks bleed and fade over time I doubt the stamps are authentic, just a gut feeling though. I don't know what the price is but I can generalize what I have seen from good vendors asking for marukas , minimum of 500-700 dollars for a small razor sized hone and sky is the limit for large pretty bench stones. I'm sure there are exceptions but if the seller knows he has a winner they are going to ask a high price. I echo the sentiment that Alex is good to deal with and will accept a returns if you are unhappy not many will do this. Maksim from JNS may be a better vendor for you being in Romania because he is in Denmark probably less shipping hassle in that regard and he sells good stones also Tomo Nagura website gets a mention hes never let me down either. I am sure there are other good vendors out there but those three I would trust most from what I know and experienced.
Price is 200$.
also has a picture with slurry.
I've talked to an experienced boy (roumanian) who told me at first glance he was from Russia.
I told him to sell it, I thought he did too much favor for me.
I'm waiting to see if he sells it.
Good man :)
he saw me more needy, and he made mercy.
The shape of the stone looked familiar (had some jnats from the Russian seller in my watchlist for a while last year). I agree with what's been said about the products of this seller. I bought a generously stamped "nakayama" lv5 from him but turned out to be a mediocre pre-finisher and more soft than any other lv5 I've owned. I ended up cutting it into smaller bits as tomos.
If it helps, here's the old listing - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Na...p2047675.l2557
Personally, for 200$ I'd go the JNS route and shoot Maksim an email.
Thx a lot. I don't buy the stone.
Well since the few pages of the kioto mining asociationstamps registry pics went on all the forums a few years back(cough) there has been a lot of freshly stamped maruka...sometimes they get the ink coluor wrong...sometimes it's the font on the kanji and the proportions of the stamp that are off...and sometimes they go all out stupid and use stamps not normaly seen togeter or stamp a stone clearly from another mine like awatanii...''maruka''...when it comes to money some people go all the way...guys when something sounds too good to be true then it most certanly is.
Dont think buying from Japan is diffrent...there are a lot of fakes out there and a lot of mediocre stones not worth buying...dont think ppl are just selling their best stones to the highest bidder...they also have multiple accounts and raise their bid on their own items...they also got fake stamped stones...and low quality stones polished up , laquered in cashew and put on a nice new shiny stand... they also want to make money and honour is a rare thing even in Japan these days...you will lose more money then you make if you dont know what you are doing and funny part is that sometimes you will realise you actualy bought a fake months later ...
A stone is a nakayama or a maruka if it has the stamps to prove it...those stamps must show their age if used and even if kept in a box.
The stamps also must respect certain characteristics.
If there are no stamps few ppl can actualy be trusted to give their opinion to what a stone might be...by looks...and honing propertyes...and even this is a guess...sure some stones scream out the mine...but most dont and they can be anything. And of course the one selling it wants the most money for it and its easy to yell Nakayama or Ozukoo...on every damn tomae stone.
Keep in mind that no stone dealer in Japan will admit to reading bark/kawa or telling what mine a stone is from...and those guys deal stones thousands of them...it's hilarious when you see ppl that never even got to test a hundred jnats begining to name stones...
What I sugest to people seeking a good stone. Buy from a seller that accepts test and return at your expense.
Buy from a seller that has decent prices...not cheap and not sucker prices.
Buy from a seller that has no bad reviews
And also buy from a seller that stands behind his products 100%. You have your God given right to return a product that is not to your standards in 30 days...I dont see why this should be any diffrent.
Use paypal or some payment method thatnalows you to get your money back
And a few kind words to the fine gentlemen selling stones.
People buy a stone because they like using it...sooner or later they will get educated and find out what they have.
Dont fund scumbags...even if the price is right....because for every fake stone sold...that person will make more...and in time it will be difficult if not imposible to recognise the authentic ones from the fakes....the only way to stop the fakes is to stop buying them...get educated and buy smart....if they dont make money they dont make fakes....
My 2 cents
Easy to tell, hard to make.
I would suggest checking out thejapanstone.com . Great place