Thread: J-Nat club

Right. Because they are natural stones, you get ideas of what colors and hardness might produce. It's never actually known until the stone is tested. The old hard kiita stones, especially ones stamped maruka, tend to be of very high quality. Mine is undergoing a 4th coat of shellac. Once that is dry I'll try to lap out more of the gouges and see how it performs. I did a quick test run pretty lapping, and it showed some real promise.

Also, kiita stones tend to cut very fast. They also have a different feel to them than say a hard asagi. Again it's hard to say things like color and hardness will be an indication of a great stone, they come in all varieties of hardness and fineness.

So what does Karasu mean?

A mixture of colours?

cheers

Originally Posted by JOB15

So what does Karasu mean?

A mixture of colours?

cheers

Karasu refers to "flying crow" patterns. It's usually on asagi stones with black splotches. Good ones tend to be hard stones, but again they can be soft too.

I know that the synthetic stones line the flattening stone after wear.
And how come the Japanese natural stones, also align flattening stone ? For example Naniwa 220 Flattening Stone.

Originally Posted by maximuslt

I know that the synthetic stones line the flattening stone after wear.
And how come the Japanese natural stones, also align flattening stone ? For example Naniwa 220 Flattening Stone.

Hard to understand exactly what you are asking, but yes natural stones need to be flattened too. This stone I just received has some small gouges in it from what I'm assuming were carving chisels. The seller had a large assortment of the highest quality Woodworking tools for sale from the same estate my stone came from. The norton lapping stone is not very good, and I doubt it would do anything to my stone. I use a well worn dmt325. Even with this, it takes a long time before I start to see any slurry build up.

Originally Posted by prodigy

Karasu refers to "flying crow" patterns. It's usually on asagi stones with black splotches. Good ones tend to be hard stones, but again they can be soft too.

This is karasu, or 'crow' pattern. The base color is usually gray, khaki, a shade of brown, or even yellowish.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

This is karasu, or 'crow' pattern. The base color is usually gray, khaki, a shade of brown, or even yellowish.

Cheers, Steve

Mine was described as Karasu, would you agree? "536"

Originally Posted by JOB15

Mine was described as Karasu, would you agree? "536"

Personally I would not call that a karasu. The stone on 536 to me is a beautiful and unusual asagi, but not 'crow'. But it's just a coloration thing. The Japanese described many things with terms from nature, and karasu referred to a pattern that looked like crow wings against a dull sky. Yake meant sunrise/sunset and referred to the yellow-orange color of the sky at sunrise or sunset, goma means sesame seed, nashiji means pear skin.

Here's a couple more pics. Karasu will also frequently have a black layer on the back of the stone if it wasn't removed, and you can often see thin black lines on the edges of the stone that are the edges of the 'crows'.

Cheers, Steve