Thread: Hone troubles

Jason

The kanji in the rectangle reads down SHO HON ZAN HON KAKU HIN meaning correct original mountain original source. And the other kanji reads YAMASHIRO.

To begin with Yamashiro is the old name from the Edo Period for the area west of Kyoto. This is just a poetic use of an old location to suggest or to give a flavor of the past. This area is now known as the Tamba region.

Sho Hon Zan Hon Kaku Hin is again just a way to suggest it is from the original source without really saying what that source is. Most mines still in business will stamp their stones with the name of the mine like Narutaki or Ohira.

Older stones will develop an oxidized skin that will repel water and may create an uneven feel to the stone and this could be what is throwing off your sharpening results. Also some miners use to coat their stones with an egg wash to help protect the finished surface from containments. Not all miners did the egg wash but some did. This will also repel water and my help to create an uneven sharpening surface. Many of these stones will come alive and sharpen greater then you expected after you break through these microns thick skin.

Try lapping the whole surface to break through any old surface layer. It will just take a few passes with a diamond plate or another stone if you have one that is rougher or even sandpaper at this point. You want to get a feel of what is underneith. Since you wore off the ink stamps already you have nothing to loose by going a little deeper.

I call the inclusions that scratch the blade with harder rougher material as toxic. Some inclusions are not toxic. To begin with just try scratching this out with a sharp nail or a scratch awl to just below the surface after you have lapped the stone. If you do this the stone may sharpen your blades just fine. If this works it just means that the stone will just require some maintaince.

The generic stamps like you have on this stone are just an example of a wholesaler having his own stamps made up for him to give the stones a feeling like they fit in some where in the market place. He is not infringing upon anyones copyrighted stamps, but he is attempting to market stones that will become recognizable as his. There is a whole new breed of wholesalers, apart from the miners, who will consolidate unmarked stones from different sources and the try to retail them out with their own stamps. It is a niche market and the internet is the perfect compliment to moving stones. It helps to be able to read Japanese ( I do not but my wife does) if you care about the source of the stones. Like Hon Yama (original mountain) does not mean Nakayama but sometimes it gets interpreted that way. But it also helps if you are looking at the actual stone you are buying before you buy it instead of getting shipped one that you did not pick out as "the particular stone".
I hope this helps. Alx