Thread: Nakayama Honyama Habutae

Well ,

I am not sure what OP stands for but yes I will.
Thanks to all of you for comments and all the help.

Best Regards,

JSZ

Originally Posted by UrsaMaior

Well ,

I am not sure what OP stands for but yes I will.
Thanks to all of you for comments and all the help.

Best Regards,

JSZ

OP is original poster.

JSZ;

Nice looking stone, however as you know looks do not mean anything regarding quality of a Japanese natural razor hone. Only by testing will you know if you have a good one. Here is my Nakayama “mine” habutae “white” with light karasu “crow” on the back. It’s a very hard and slow stone with slurry but puts a fine edge on razors.

The slurry keeps getting finer and finer as you do your X-strokes. Finish with water only and very light strokes. While this stone could be a final finish, it is not my final finisher. The last pic is a more normal habutae coloration and very high end Nakayama habutae with a shooting star. Have fun.

Mike

Hey Modine ,did you buy that Habutae in the last pic ? It was on my bench for weeks. Magic stone on chippy steels.

JSZ

I quote Yamashita So-san

"Yes, Habutae is a pure white very expensive drapery used for kimono. The whiter Shiro Suita has a nick name Habutae because of the similarity of the colour."


This quote came from the JapaneseWoodworkingForum in a thread called Natural Stone Mystery 6/12/2007. A great thread by the way if you are interested in Japanese sharpening stones.

Your stone reads,

The kanji on the top left reads: Sho Hon Yama Awasedo (Original Mountain Sharpening Finishing Stone), and at the upper right Habutae (Purest White), and at the bottom left Betsusen (Best Quality).


Also understandably there is some confusion about the word Habutae. Acording to So-san, there is a strata in the mines outside of Kyoto that is known as the Shiro Suita Strata and it is the deepest strata in the geology and just below the Hon Suita Strata and both of these strata produce the hardest suita stones.


Now Shiro literally means White, but not all Shiro Suita stone are pure white, but within the Shiro Suita Strata there were stones known as Habutae Shiro Suita and they were pure white and very hard, fine and exceedingly rare and these strata are presently all depleated. Yours acording to the photos is not one of those pure white stones. For comparrison the whiteness of these Habutae stones could be comparred to the best and whitest Koma nagura stone. The word Habutae originated in the kimono trade to describe the pure white and thin silk used as lining in super high quality kimono.


The stamps on your stone are basic generic stamps that all miners have in a little box in a drawer in their office, I have seen them. One miner I know has at least if not more than 15 different stamps that spelled out: the best, the finest, original mountain, suita, hon suita, finest suita, etc, and I have a stone that is marked White Horse. A lot of miners also use historical references in their stamps. I hope this helps somewhat. Alx

Originally Posted by UrsaMaior

Here is my new hone just wonder if any one is using Nakayama Habutae ?

There is not much info about Habuate so all your opinions are very welcome.

Thank you.

P.S. Is any one can read these Kanjis?

Fortunately for you I can read Kanji and it clearly says , across the hone "Please send me to komjong."

Alas OZ, no I did not. She's a beaut though. I really like the irregular shape stones. They have more.....character.
MIke

Very nice stone, UrsaMaior. Thanks for posting pics, and please post more pics when you get it in hand. Japanese naturals of that size are worth seeing any number of times. Lovely uniformity of color throughout the stone as well.

OK Guys,

First things first, thank you every body for your time and input.

I have received the stone about two weeks ago and had time to play with it. I would have to say it is good finisher stone in mid-hard range. It produces nice sharp and smooth finish on my Wapi, Barber Choice and etc. The only problem is with my Mamer & Grosh Toledo Razor , it seems to me like this particular razor is of much harder steel than others and the edge is not as quite sharp . On the scale 1-10 I would say is 8.5 .The feedback is more like from 10 000 Choshera finishing stone, but the edge is sharp and smooth like butter. You can actually feel how the razor is cutting without pulling. I got the stone together with small Tomo Nagura stone so I was using slurry, water and finally just with soap. No strapping needed. Also I have to say the stone is quite fast, about 20-25 laps and the razor is ready to shave.

So now let’s enjoy the pics and let’s see what comments/questions you guys may have.

Best Regards,

JSZ

The stone has been lapped with Atomo Diamond Plate (#1200)[IMG][/IMG]

Those pics show the Habutae colour much better. Seems it has some nashiji (the little brown spots) as well.
Although it is a fast stone you may just need a few more strokes on the harder razor that you say is not so sharp or maybe even going back to a slightly lower grit.
Congrats.