Thread: Sourcing Guangxi hones in China

Well, thanks to Botanic, ffourteen, and everyone else for the advice. After doing a bit of research, I have pretty much decided that the only stone I'm going to buy in China is a 木井方 (mujingfang) waterstone. I've found others on Taobao, but nothing that gets my antennas twitching. I haven't heard from anywhere that there are great stones waiting to be discovered, so I'll just buy that one and give it a try.

If you go to the fish market in Chengdu China they have excellent hones at really great prices. You can also buy some really great knives at reasonable prices. If you go to Chengdu you have to check out the fish market. If you have room in your suitcase I want you to bring me back some things

I got the Mujingfang (木井方) stone:



I have noticed something interesting in the packaging and labelling. If we look closely in the following video

https://youtu.be/m-aNciKhI8Y

the box in the video clearly states that the stone is from Guangxi Province, once in Chinese, and once in English:



However, other stones in this thread, and mine, do not state this, replacing Guangxi / 廣西 (广西) with 木井方, as you can see in the following photo:



I have searched Taobao for a version with 廣西 rather than 木井方 on the box, but have not been successful. The obvious explanation is that the Mujingfang stones are no longer from Guangxi. I did wonder if there was some sort of branding infringement, and my stone is produced by a different entity than the ones marked 廣西, but if so, why be concerned about stating an accurate origin on the box? Very curious to know if anyone has an answer to this.

I have tried the stone briefly (without lapping it). I was able to get a decent edge, but no better and probably not as good as the edge I get off my 6k King stone, so I don't think it quite makes it as a finisher for razors. However, under the loupe, the scratch pattern looks very even, so no complaints about the quality of the stone, which makes it a good natural stone for the price, which was RMB25+6, about $4.50 including shipping. I'll hang on to it and I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

Anyone apart from Botanic and ffourteen have any experience with these stones? Am I missing something, is there any way to get more out of it?

All said and done, I think my search for Chinese stones stops here for now...

Hmmm? looks exactly like the hone i bought (and then sold) from Woodcraft.

Originally Posted by tintin

Hmmm? looks exactly like the hone i bought (and then sold) from Woodcraft.

Your box is different to mine. On the top, above and to the right of the black text, in red and within a red border, yours says '廣西' (广西, Guangxi), whereas mine says '木井方' （Mujingfang). Nowhere on my box is there any mention of Guangxi.

Here is yours:

And here is mine:

Well, after reading around, mainly on this forum, and in the light of the big variations in the Mujingfang stones, I have bought five of them, the idea being to try them all, and select one or two that work for me, then either sell or give the others away. You can see different colours in the picture, on the far right there is one darker stone which is harder, though it is not consistently hard across the face, there are some soft areas too. The other four seem softer, (from the left) one is a greenish grey, two are a slightly lighter blueish grey, and one is in between the lighter bluish grey ones and the darker harder stone. The softer ones can be marked by a fingernail, the hard one cannot.

I see that there are different ways of getting the best out of the different variants of this stone:

https://sharprazorpalace.com/hones/1...one-12k-5.html page 5 #41

So the plan is get them home somehow, get them all lapped, and then do a bit of experimenting to see what I can get out of them. It will cost more to ship them back to Europe than I paid for them...

I'm willing to wager the hard one will be paydirt. That said, if they've changed source as the change from Gaungxi to Mujingfang would indicate, I would imagine we're dealing with a slightly different beast than the C12k we're familiar with.

Cursory search of Mujingfang leads me to believe it's a tool maker:

"Mujingfang gathered the best plane makers from around the country and brought them to their Hong Kong factory from where they supplied master craftsmen throughout South East Asia. Recently, they decided to offer their handmade planes to Western woodworkers."

Perhaps they bought the mine, or just a large chunk of the stones, and gave them their own in-house name instead of relying on the Guangxi label we're familiar with?

Originally Posted by Marshal

Cursory search of Mujingfang leads me to believe it's a tool maker:

"Mujingfang gathered the best plane makers from around the country and brought them to their Hong Kong factory from where they supplied master craftsmen throughout South East Asia. Recently, they decided to offer their handmade planes to Western woodworkers."

Perhaps they bought the mine, or just a large chunk of the stones, and gave them their own in-house name instead of relying on the Guangxi label we're familiar with?

That is my understanding, I don't think 'Mujingfang' is a place or geographical denomination. I think you are right, the difference may just be a branding thing for Chinese and overseas markets. The stones don't seem any different to the ones labelled as 'Guangxi'.

I just purchased another Guangxi hone from WoodCraft and mine still said Guangxi. Interestingly the stone I just received doesn't look anything like the one I purchased almost 5 years ago. The one I just received almost looks like a Thuri stone color wise, I haven't taken pictures side by side yet I will get some and post them on here. Has anyone else noticed this issue?

Matt...

Guangxi is a region of China that is approximately the size of the state of Oregon. There could be multiple mines in the region, all selling stones labeled as Guangxi. There could also be mines in Guangxi that are selling stones under their own trade name.

Thuringia is an area of Germany that is approximately 7% the size of Guangxi. Yet, people say that stones mined just a few miles away from the original mines from which vintage Escher stones were extracted are different than the original Escher stones. No wonder people say that Guangxi stones have variable quality. Even original Escher stones, like all natural stones, vary in hardness, color, and honing properties.