The Aoto Thread

[mainaman]

The aoto came from 330mate.

The Ohira Tomae also came from him. It is a medium fine stone and not a finisher. It is the one he has listed as "JAPANESE sharpening stone #100 Ohira Green kumori sword" it is a size 100 so is about 150 by 55. I would like it to be bigger and maybe a little harder. It yields slurry easily. It is a good stone to fit between the Aoto and the finish stones.

I have been discussing an upgrade for that spot (the Tomae) with So.

my 330mate Aoto turned out as fine as my 1k, but I am ok with that I got it cheap. I am talking to So about a stone to fill the 3k - finisher gap too.

[Pyment]

He kind of likes a Maruoyama Shiro suita for that.

I am just waiting for So to give me the total and how to make payment.

Japan Tool - Natural Sharpening Stones - Maruoyama2

[mainaman]

He kind of likes a Maruoyama Shiro suita for that.

I am just waiting for So to give me the total and how to make payment.

Japan Tool - Natural Sharpening Stones - Maruoyama2

I am getting one like this


just different size

[Pyment]

Is that a Maruoyama?

[mainaman]

Is that a Maruoyama?

Shobu Siuta

[Pyment]

very nice!

Back on topic. Here is a closer shot of my Aoto's surface as I am currently using.

[mitchshrader]

I bought two stones, large size Aoto, year before last. One from 330mate, one from JapanWoodworker.com (IIRC).

I bought from them first, got an attractive, regularly cut, big brick of blue Aoto.. that had small hard inclusions in the primary face which made it horrible to use.

Then I bought from 330mate and paid 1.5x as much for a hand picked vintage Aoto, which had broken corners, some cracks, and sharpens like a dream. Fine stone, ugly as a pig in mud. The other is cosmeticly excellent, and I don't dislike anyone enough to give it to them.

I'm keeping it in case I make an enemy. ymmv.

[Pyment]

I think if someone wants a predictable aoto experience, the best way to go is the synthetic aoto. There are a number of sources for those. Hida Tool, japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com, The Japan Woodworker (It's under coarse benchstones) others.

[Pyment]

An update,

Although I like my Aoto, I wanted something a little wider to use on blades that I have had to reshape. Say, if I have just corrected a frown I would like to stay on wider stones as long as I can. I have Ohira Green kumori stone I bought on ebay from 330mate. I know it will work in this spot, but the size is small for that use. I contacted 330 mate and ordered the same stone in the 60 size. This would be 70mm by 195mm.

This is from the Tomae layer of Ohira. This Tomae is a softer than some of my other stones and generates a goodly amount of slurry. Tomae is the most uniform layer and should be a nice predictable stone for the 4000 - 6000 range. It is finer than the Aoto. It cuts faster than my BBW and will permit me to change to natural stone for all my blades after 2000. I think you could shave off this stone, but haven't tried.

It is also the last stone I use with slurry (in fact it is soft enough to get slurry no matter what).

I will probably put the smaller one up in the classifieds at some point. I figure someone will want to use it.

I haven't tried going from the 1K to this, basically because I like using the 2K Chocera in between.

[Pyment]

Well I got my larger Ohira Tomae stone. It took 5 weeks to arrive. It was definitely harder and seemed finer than what I asked for.

I sent an email to 330mate, but, knowing I was right up against Paypal's deadline for opening a dispute and that he takes days to answer most times, I also opened a paypal dispute. In the dispute I noted that the only reason I did it was to preserve my right to dispute it as the deadline was approaching and the stone appeared different than I was expected.

He asked for pics. I sent some. The same as I sent with the original email, actually. The next email was insulting and called me names.

By this time I had been able to work with the stone some more and realized it was going to be fine.

I replied politely that the stone was OK and I was going to close the dispute. I added that I was saddened by his response because I had purchased 5 stones from him previously with no problems.

He responded with more insults and told me again to go away.

I am almost irritated enough to "sell" a souvenir "330 mate is a rude unpleasant man and poor eBay seller" poster on eBay and send him the link.

Any interest?