Thread: Old japanese hones

Now this may seem ridiculous. I don't know. But I've been staring at an Asagi for a little bit now, thinking on buying one to see what Japanese naturals are all about. Anyways, I got a stone from auction that isn't like any other stone I've ever had. (Coticule, hindostan, vintage welsh stone, Hard and Soft Arks, thuri, c12k....I think that's all). Anyways, I don't think me posting a pic is going to help anyone, because there's really nothing that stands out about it. No "skin", no marks of any kind. It's just an olive green hone, of odd shape, that laughed at my DMT, destroyed 150 grit WD emery, and polished to a glass like sheen at 220 grit. Now maybe that sounds like CF to some people, but..it doesn't look like any CF I've seen on the web. Aww heck maybe I better take some pictures. Anyways, it came with a little black slurry stone. Anyhow, the point of my thread was to ask anyone who ever came up with a stone they believe to be a vintage japanese stone, if they'd post a pic of it here in this thread. Might be a waste of your effort, but idk. I don't think it happens very often that people come up with a vintage Ozuku for instance. I assume it'd look just the same as a "new" Ozuku. As for honing characteristics, the stone has stiction. I mean the razor doesn't just glide on the surface like it would on a thuri. It kinda sticks like a C12k can sometimes. I've tried it on an already shave ready razor, and the razor is still shave ready. lol. It was already a pretty great edge, and I'm not noticing any degradation. So..anybody got an "old" japanese stone? Let's see it!

Sounds interesting but you really need to post some GOOD pics!

I'll put it in a name that hone thread. I don't know it's japanese, and don't want to mislead any newbie who might happen onto the thread.

I have a couple of vintage stones, but they don't look anything like a new ozuku stone. I don't know how long ozuku hard stones have been popular, but the vintage stones I have are probably from narutaki or nakayama (it's a grayish suita, so hard to tell) - (one of them) and the other is from ozaki mine. I saw pictures of your other stone. Neither of them look remotely close to that, and I do have two ozukus, one gray and prepolisher grit (it's intended for woodworking), the other was green koppa that I cut up to make grading stones. Also didn't look like your stone.

Vintage japanese stones usually have skin on the back, hand chisel marks or fairly coarse saw marks on them somewhere.

What I would recommend it hitting the 'enter' key in between sentences every once in awhile.

This breaks the text up making it easier to read.

If you go to So Yamashita's site here, he has pix of a bunch of jnats. All shapes and sizes. Scroll down to see the stones.

I saw the pix of the olive green stone in that other thread. No idea what it is. Kryptonite maybe ?

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Anyhow, the point of my thread was to ask anyone who ever came up with a stone they believe to be a vintage japanese stone, if they'd post a pic of it here in this thread. Might be a waste of your effort, but idk. I don't think it happens very often that people come up with a vintage Ozuku for instance. I assume it'd look just the same as a "new" Ozuku.

All JNats are vintage , there are only a few mines that are still one, and they do not produce razor hones IFAIK.
Ozuko, Shobudani, Nakayama are long closed and all stones from them are old mined stock that is only freshly cut for sale.
The green color is does not give any information of the mine of origin, I have several green Jnats that are from different mines.

Well, like I said, I didn't think pictures would be of any use. I know it doesn't look like any japanese stone. It doesn't look like any stone that I know of in fact. Which doesn't make it rare at all btw. I was just asking for those with vintage japanese stones to post pictures. Thanks for the links guys. As for whether it looks remotely close DaveW, it'll really be for me to judge, after somebody posts pics. Ofc you don't know me, and don't know that I have a clue. But I do. I've seen plenty of pictures of japanese honing stones. I'm not asking if it looks like a japanese honing stone. I'm asking for pics of vintage japanese honing stones that are not freshly cut. If you've got one, please post it. Thanks.

And by any chance that is not the hone pictures of which you show in your other link?

Disregard my entire paragraph of rambling except for this final sentence.

So..anybody got an "old" japanese stone? Let's see it!

Basically, I just thought it'd be helpful if people who have verified, very old japanese stones posted pics, and did it all in one thread. All the typing beforehand should have been left out, in that all it's done added a factor to this thread that never belonged, and wasn't intended. I never intended for this thread and the other to cross paths, or for one to lead to the other. If you have information on that stone, please put it in that thread. And if you have pics of old japanese honing stones, please put them in this thread. And please consider the two posts unrelated. Thanks.