Thread: J-Nat club

Ohira suita, I think. Came in the mail today. Not a razor finisher, but a tool and knife stone. I have three of these on the way (it's nice to try several and see which is best). There is nothing to scale it against in the picture - it is a 30-type sized stone, 45mm thick.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Ohira suita, I think. Came in the mail today. Not a razor finisher, but a tool and knife stone. I have three of these on the way (it's nice to try several and see which is best). There is nothing to scale it against in the picture - it is a 30-type sized stone, 45mm thick.

Should work fine after 1k with slurry to bridge to your finisher.

Originally Posted by mainaman

Should work fine after 1k with slurry to bridge to your finisher.

Yes, and I might do that with the various suitas at some point just for entertainment. They do allow someone to buy a slower finisher, though, which is not a bad thing, as the fast and fine finisher with a soft feel is sometimes a unicorn stone that when you do find it, is no better at finishing than an inexpensive koppa of the same material.

I go around in circles with this stuff in my head. What is definitely valuable to me is a stone that will finish a tool edge fast, because I do most of my woodworking by hand and trips to the stones are frequent and they need to be functional, but not contest-winning. It's nice to have stones that will quickly finish a japanese knife, too, without scratching it up or putting it in limbo between polished and kasumi.

I'll be interested (and time permitting, will share) after I get the next 15 stones that I have coming in the mail - to see what the scratch pattern difference is in the various really inexpensive stones vs. the fairly expensive one.

So far, perhaps the best stone I've ever gotten for multi purpose is the fairly unsightly suita that I put in the other thread. It will finish a razor to a level (uniform polish and relaxed/not harsh keen feel on the face) that most wouldn't recognize to not be a finisher. And then with pressure and the presence of jigane, it will shed a few particles and cut fast.

Didn't play with the stone above yet, which cost a little more, but I expect won't be quite as good technically other than being more aesthetically pleasing to look at.

This arrived in the mail today. I don't know really what I have here but I think it's beautiful! Can't wait to test it out. The seller threw in the nagura in the deal as well




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Some repeats in these pictures:

https://postimg.org/image/gkabluzi5/

https://postimg.org/image/7ds0yku9p/

Sorry about the blur. The stones on my bench, two are repeats (one is stamped and came in a hatanaka box, but I have no clue what it is - it's not hatanaka stamped, but if it was, nobody would know because it was used when I got it).

From left to right on the bench:
* hatanaka stamped unknown mine (did hatanaka stamp shoubu stones? It reminds me of shoubu under tools - that is, it fractures on the surface of something metallic with corners touches it, so it's not good for tools as shoubus often aren't in my somewhat limited experience. Metallic with corners is like the arises on the back of a chisel. A good stone for tools, like shinden or okudo suita, never exhibits that behavior).
* Ohira shiro suita
* Ohira shiro suita
* Yaginoshima (only know the mine, nothing else about it. Fine for yaginoshima, but not sure how fine yet)
* Ohira shiro suita

The yaginoshima stone was relatively inexpensive, but the others weren't.

The picture on my dining room table (which you can't tell that it's a dining room table, just that it's not a bench) is inexpensive stones. The light colored one is aiiwatani, not sure about the rest.

I have bought a lot of stones in the past. I always expect that a stone that's inexpensive will have one of two issues (if it's not unexpectedly soft):
* the feel will be off. For example, a stone will be very skippy on water
* the stone will be slow when it's not slurried

Of course, if a stone is cracked or has a big void, it will be inexpensive and may otherwise be a great stone.

I haven't had a chance to form conclusions about all of the inexpensive stones here, because I've only tried two of them. One is superb for tools (haven't tried it with a razor yet), and the other is definitely not (skippy and brittle on the surface - and that same stone finished a razor on clear water to a very bright polish - probably because it's a weak cutter? but the shave was irritating).

This is my contribution to the club. A Hatanaka stamped Nakayama Maruka Kiita from Alex Gilmore, the incredibly helpful and knowledgeable proprietor of thejapanstone.com. I'm very excited to try it out. It's a true beauty.

Wow. More pics please. I was gonna post a few pics of some stones I got but now I feel like trying to show a Honda next to a Lambo. No offense to Honda owners

New arrivail Ohira special grade Akane Iromono with a cool 3D effect phantom like karasu pattern. It also has the old hand saw marks so this stone would have been processed long ago.

First a koma - over 800 gr. No stamps. Tried honing on it. Turns the slurry dark very fast. The stone itself is pretty hard, doesn't release slurry with water only. I tried an asagi tomo to raise slurry and it came out greenish. So I settled on using a small koma.



Next a mejiro in a brick size. Just arrived from Japan. Have not tried it yet. Will need to be sealed first.

question for the guys with hatanaka stamped stones. Is it implied that when you get one of those stones with stamps that they're gone if you lap it? That may be a stupid question, I can't imagine that they go below the surface, but so many of them still have their stamps in tact that I'm guessing that means they're never used seriously.