Very unique and interesting stone in Chinatown
By the way since you guys have been so much helpful I thought to share this with you. Here in downtown vancouver we have a store called Tinland in Chinatown. They have a huge variety of sharpening stones, and one particular stone that came to my attention is a huge stone, 5 inch thick by 4 inch wide and about 12 inches long. The stone stays white when its dry, but when you use it then becomes black. The asian guy who owns the store said that this is a very rare stone from mines in Japan and its hard to determine the grit since its one solid stone but he estimates it to be around or above 20000 grit. The stone does feel very fine and produces some decent slurry when wet. He is selling it for $19 and comes in a wrapped plastic, no fancy labels or packaging. I asked him what type of stone it is and he said its mainly used for Samurai swords and one stone can last 5 generations :O
Didnt bought it but thought to share it with you guys just in case anyone is interested.