Thread: Need help with Japanese hones!

OK gents, I'm on this one...

"Iron Flower" appears to be the direct translation of the Japanese term for what we call "swarf"...the metal worn away by the hone. So if the slurry turns black quickly, then the hone is very hard and should be good for razors...

Originally Posted by 330matecom

Hello.

I have been to Nakayama mine some times.
It's a pic of the factory in NAKAYAMA and the entrance of Mizumafu mine.
There are more than 6 sub mines of Nakayama.
At the bottom is Mizumafu.
He provide blue gray hard stones well.
Most of entrance was broken.
And Mizumafu will be broken in the near future.
Pillars are corrupt.

My elder master is the last miner of Nakayama.
He is 75 years old.
Nakayama closed about 30 years old ,but few uncut stones are available in his home.
I know some miner of Nakayama ,but most of them are died.

nakayama pictures by mifuqwai - Photobucket

Thanks

Hello, and welcome to the forum.
Do you have a picture of the narutaki mine as well?
I think we would love to see some of those pics from your blog of you digging

What are the differences between stones from Hitomi-san and Yamakan-san. What is the availability of Kouzaki-aoto.

Ok thanks

Thanks Nakaoka.

kanekkui, kanechiki, sorry I do not know the kanji.

What are they or how do they occur? Is it hard particle from the stone, or the steel?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Stones seems to always fall one of two ways Natural or Synthetic....

Natural fans have a wee bit of romance about their stones, no offense but you guys do

Us synthetic users are more about outright performance,,,

Natural Guy "Oh it is so smooth"
Synthetic Guy "Oh it is so sharp"

Natural Guy " It takes 100 laps, as light as a feathers touch"
Synthetic Guy "20 laps and I am done"

Natural Guy "Well if you want the most out of yer stone you have to learn about raising a slurry"
Synthetic Guy "What's a slurry"???


Natural Guy "Well my stone gives a great finish, yours must have been mined 100 feet higher"
Synthetic Guy "They are all the same, just do 20 light laps and yer done"


Natural Guy "I spent $300 on a chunk -o-rock
Synthetic Guy " I spent $300 on an entire honing system"

Small differences out there....

From reading your post I would recommend for you the Norton Starter set 220/1000 - 4k/8k and the lapping stone for $120 on Amazon this covers everything you might throw at it...

Then get the Shapton Sweet 16 from SRD for $94 and you are set for stones

I would recommend the DMT 325 for lapping all of these BTW.....

That would outfit you for about $250 including shipping....

I know this system works, I used it for about a year before I bought the full set of Shapton's

The other nice option out there is the Naniwa Super Stones Lynn isn't kidding, they do work slick as snot...
You could get the 1k-5k-8k-12k with the 325 DMT and be set for life....

Just giving you the other side of the coin....

Glen I know you're probably tongue in cheek on some of the things you said but gotta disagree on a coupla things.
Japanese natural stones ain't slow - would never do 100 strokes on my Asagi maybe 20 or 30. Now if we're talking Coticules or Chinese 12k I'm 100% in agreement. They are slooooow

Also my Suita was about 2/3 the price of a Norton 8k so they don't have to be expensive either.
My Asagi is at least 30k but again was about 30% cheaper than a Shapton 30k so really a bargain by comparison.

As far as being a bunch of romantics tho. Heck, ya got us there.

Just bought a Japanese natural from ZethLent. It arrived today.

It seems to have come originally from 330mate (see? you have a secondary market).

I test drove it a little with a few razors and it had really nice feedback. My Elosef (Bulgarian razor) really seemed to like it. (does anthropomorphism make me a "natural" guy?)

Test shaving tomorrow!

(having fun at the Py family homestead)

Originally Posted by khaos

PS: can anyone tell me what the famous samurai's used?

Here is a link explaining the polishing of a Katana and materials used.
It's quite involved.
process of the polishing work