Thread: J-Nat club

Originally Posted by SharpMan

I can't be certain of course, but I have seen so many(thousands) natural stones
and I always pay attention to their looks and what mine and strata they are from.

OP says the stone is very hard, so very likely from a deep strata. It does not
look like suita at all, so probably tomae, namito or aisa strata. Looking at the
colour of the stone I see this greenish colour, and tiny hints of karasu
which makes me think namito the most and maybe aisa. And I get a ''namito
feeling'' looking at the stone. Might be aisa or between both.

Sharpman

You have personally hadled thousands of Jnats or just seen pictures of that many?
I am not sure one can tell what a stone is just by looking at pics, especially if we do not know the pic shows the real color of the stone.
Karasu can be fond in layers other than Aisa and Namito.

My latest acquisition
Nakayama Maruichi, suita with Renge and no su, never seen one like that before.

Originally Posted by mainaman

You have personally hadled thousands of Jnats or just seen pictures of that many?
I am not sure one can tell what a stone is just by looking at pics, especially if we do not know the pic shows the real color of the stone.
Karasu can be fond in layers other than Aisa and Namito.

Stefan, when I was on vacation in Japan I saw so many natural stones, not
sure how much. Some shops had many hundreds. I always asked what stone
(mine,strata etc...) As for pictures, probably as much or more.

It's the combination of characteristics of that particular stone which makes me
think that it is namito, very hard stone, greenish colour, hints of karasu and something
more that made me think ''that looks like a namito stone''.

Sharpman

Originally Posted by mainaman

My latest acquisition
Nakayama Maruichi, suita with Renge and no su, never seen one like that before.

Nice stone. Stefan how big is the collection by now?

Sharpman

Originally Posted by alx

Sharpman, I am sort of hanging out with you in the Namito or Aisa strata on this one. These deep stratas are always hard stones and sometimes scratchy hard. Wolfpack says it hard and it also looks like it has a faint Karasu pattern, a type of stone found in that depth in the Asia strata right next to the Namito. Nakayama karasu more often than not have a more sharply defined black patch on the gray background, this is fuzzy suggesting a nearby mine like Narutaki. Without looking at the skin of this stone the Nakayama attribution is more difficult to ascertain.

I am diggin the shape of the stone and lucky for you and your razors that you have one long straight run on that one side. Are you using the stone with a slurry for honing, if so you might try a really worn out diamond plate as a "diamond nagura" and leave the Carborundum out of the picture and off the table? Alx

Thanks for chipping in Alx...

The colors depicted in the picture are 'true'. It has a 'green-blue' face as shown. The top layer is olive green and sits on top of a solid layer which is a Dark Blue/Black color that almost looks like glass...this makes the face have a 'bluish tint to the green'. This is then sandwiched between another layer of olive green. As I said...very, very hard and very fine stone. Strictly a polisher with water only, and not much better as far as 'abrasiveness' goes with a milky slurry. I always use it with slurry and it is one of my 'GoTo' stones to put that BBS edge on my blades... along with my Eschers and my Llyn Idwall and another Nakayama Suita that I recently picked up from a very nice guy on Ebay. It always improves the edge.

I'll remove it from the stand, clean it up, and post some pics of the back of the stone later today.

Originally Posted by SharpMan

Nice stone. Stefan how big is the collection by now?

Sharpman

~30 stones
I scaled down in the last 1/2 year.

Originally Posted by mainaman

~30 stones
I scaled down in the last 1/2 year.

That is a lot of stone! Which are your favourite finishers? Please
post some pics if you have them, always enjoy watching great
stones.

Sharpman

Originally Posted by SharpMan

That is a lot of stone! Which are your favourite finishers? Please
post some pics if you have them, always enjoy watching great
stones.

Sharpman

I have almost all posted in the thread.
I have a few lower grit ones like amakusa that I have not posted.

As far as favorite finisher, for Kamisori is Wakasa (I think my first stone I posted in the thread)
For western style razor is my Ozuko which I never posted here, so here it is:

Here are a couple of pictures of the backside of my stone, as well as a couple of pictures of an 'Olive Green Color' Nakayama Suita to use as a color comparison:

To name a strata with a stone is just pointless to me there are so many stones and so many layers that it will just confuse buyer in the end.
If you go to any wholesalers in Kyoto they will tell you harder stones is from Aisa medium is from Tomae and softer from Tenjyou, but i will bet that they dont even know them self what stone come from witch strata and even from what mine, they also say it that they are not sure and it is not important. Miners might know it but there are very few of them left. I know only one man in Japan that can do it by trying a stone that many wholesalers go to if they dont know what they have !
To guess stratas from a picture is just ridicules.
So for me it is a huge guess competition and pointless discussion what stone is from what strata. Will only confuse you even more in the end !