Thread: New JNAT,

I send him a mesage that im a sraight razor user and i whant a fine , consistant and not scratchy stone . I howp hesend a good one . i f he did so i will get some more if not i will sell it to some knife guy for a bargain and never look back again =
I will keep on touch . I know exactly what is a good razor stone ha ha ah

I got one from him and waiting on another. The first one was good, though it has a crack, I find it's not toxic. Because he cocked up the auction, he sent me a big piece of lyo nagura as well, which I find very useful.

https://instagram.com/p/5wUFLFRqox/

Rusen, I also sent him a message, saying the same thing. He basically ignored it.. I asked for a harder stone for razors, but he sent this level 8 (at best) and although it's good, it is not my preferred finisher. Still a great deal and the stone is very fast and fine enough to do the entire mid-range. The size is the only issue. Will post back when the other one arrives.

[QUOTE]Because he cocked up the auction,[/QUOTE????????
explain please

As many others I bought one from that seller in my early honing days.
I never repeated that.

Originally Posted by RusenBG

explain please

Bids misteriously disappeared from autions, got given ebay's "second chance" and stuff like that... happened both times. Not going to lay any accusations, but, you know... it just seemed very suspicious.

I've said this to a couple of friends before, if bidding on those "lottery stones", don't go into a bidding war. You dont know what you're getting anyway and he has them running all the time.

Ha ha it seems that the guy is ick and tired from us - the razor users . Here is our coresponence abbout the stone
I have to admit that he is a nervous , but seems honest guy .

Dear 330mate_com,

Sir i canot afford better stone so ,if you think that there is some fine junk stone ,out there in your stock that is ok .
I am not expecting ,ultra good stone and hard stone . I whanted to try a fine grit japanese stone.
I have deep respect to your job as a miner , and i know you are very bussy .
if you think that there is someting for me that may work send it . if you whant to refund this isok also . I have trust in your choise sir .
I did not have bad feelings and i thank you very much for the time spend on answering me .

- ruse-rusen



From: 330mate_com
To: ruse-rusen
Subject: Re: I have a question about using my item or I want to send the seller a message: ruse-rusen sent a message about JAPANESE whetstone av. 500g size 70+old NAKAYAMA H2~5 razor chef knife planes #201440457448
Sent Date: Oct-06-15 08:16:09 PDT


Dear ruse-rusen,

Hello have you ever read the ad??
The quotation is really different.
this is random hand picked up JUNK stones ac too cheap.
Consider well
No thank you about your JOB.

May I revoke the deal and refund all?
I seem I cannot complete your order .
Thank you

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I never bothered to go into a full blown conversation with him. I only sent a short note on the PP payment saying "I use these on kamisori, please send a harder stone if at all possible." Then I end up reading that note again when the package arrives, on the customs form. Then I unpack it and it's a level 7+, or 8 stone. Oh well, not like I expected any different. What does annoy me is that he says this junk is "mostly level 5".

Anyway, I cant say it would surprise me if he gets annoyed. In fact, he probably thinks a lot worse about us. After all, good japanese stones go for hundreds and thousands of dollars, yet here we are, requesting a "good" stone for less than $30. I mean, the nerve, right! [emoji23]

I've bought several stones from him and I've gotten at least what I've paid for every time, BUT...

I've never bought any of the stones that are $20.

He does *not* like conversing about the shortcomings of his stones, and sometimes he values things on stones that I don't think are that great.

However, both him and metal master, I've found when they show a hard stone that looks like it has a lot of cutting power due to the iron flower on the surface, when you get it from them, that's what you get.

I buy tool stones of those types.

I've never bought a stone from either one that's less than $85, though.

If we step back for a second and observe what's in japanese natural stones, there's a lot of silicon dioxide and some natural aluminum oxide. Something like 60-65% of the former and 15-20% of the latter. The range that the stones vary in is fairly narrow, so I'd have to assume that it's how the aluminum oxide is situated in the stone or how the silica is situated or held together (or maybe the shape of the particles, I don't know). All of the japanese stones i've ever gotten have cut steel hardness 58-60 just fine. All of them have struggled on steel that is 65+ hardness.

Cheap stones tend to be soft and the ones that aren't soft tend to be kind of skippy or scratchy.

Not advocating that folks should run to fujibato and buy $100 stones, but I wouldn't write them off for everything, especially if he's got a slice of okudo or something, and it's a decent price and the visual evidence shows an iron flower without a lot of stone slurry diluting it.


IF I were going to a seller to get one single razor hone, it wouldn't be fujibato. I'd go to aoki takeshi, alex or so or someone who sells stones and uses razors. But I'll bet if fujibato actually says a stone of his is good for razors, you could get a razor sharp with it. If he doesn't, then I wouldn't assume you can, or he'd be selling it with the label that it finishes razors.

I learned that lesson with aoki, too, buying an ozuku that he said is good for knives and chisels, one that looked smooth. Who ever heard of a smooth ozuku stone that's not good for razors? Not me, but the stone I got is a prefinisher for razors and a fabulous hard stone for tools. Lesson learned. After I got over being butthurt that my stone doesn't finish a razor well, I put it in the shop and learned quickly just how fantastic it is on chisels, both western and japanese.

One last comment (Based on what follows, I guess it turns out not to be the last comment) -suppose you buy one of these $50 specials from fujibato and it sucks. If it's hard and scratchy, use it to remove rust from things (not kidding about that), if it's too soft, use it for kasumi finish on knives or just on knives in general, or cut it apart and make tomonagura out of it (which should be a stone a little softer, anyway).

That's my advice.

I buy stuff from alex, kuroda (metal master), nakaoka (fujibato) and aoki takeshi on a fairly regular basis.

I ordered this last week from fujibato just as a risk purchase (you know, sort of buy something to see how it turns out). 330mate 天然ç¥石 ç¥石 天然ç¥石販売 ãÂ�•ã‚žã‚ŒéŘçÂÂ¥ æ£本山 ä¸Â世ä¸Âå±±ç¥石 山城éŘçÂÂ¥ I think by the iron flower on the surface and the fact that the jigane on the plane iron he uses didn't rip particles off and make a slurry, that it will be a decent stone worth the $90 that it cost with shipping. Would it finish a razor? Probably not. I ordered it for tools.

All of that said, if you're the kind of buyer who likes nice conversation and to be catered to, fujibato may answer that with calling you a "little girl" (seen that one before )

Could not agree more with all of that. I have been tempted by some of his larger hones, but now I have a different plan, so saving money for something special.

Anyhoo... here's a photo of one of the cheapo stones and another of its flaw (well, one of the more important flaws anyway). The crack does not hurt, he made sure of it and I am also paying attention to it after lapping, to make sure it stays only a visual issue. This is the stone I got when I sent the note "for razors...." Maybe he actually gave it some consideration. Honing feedback is very pleasant, velvety smooth, not scratchy at all. You can tell it's a softer stone purely by the feedback. It's crazy fast (in removing steel) on tomo and as you dilute it, it slows down, until the blade starts sticking to it. Nevertheless this is a slow process and probably another important flaw, next to the size and shape, which drives the price very low. But when you reach that point, you are honing on water already, the steel starts to get that mirror finish... and as you ease on the pressure, it starts skipping and sticking even more, like some coticules. In the end, the edge is good for a shave, but slightly aggressive. I haven't figured out exactly why that is.. whether it's "too sharp", or toothy, or just not where a finer stone takes it.

In any case, I actually love this stone and my only regret is that it isn't a bit larger. Then again, if it were larger, it would have cost 5x what I paid for it, at least. Nowdays I normally use it to quickly pass through the mid-range and then probably turn to a faster and finer finisher.

Is that Asagi stone and from Tomae . Those lines and colored spots , arent they typical for Nakyama mine and for the tomae strata . Or im mistaking .
Are those black spots bad for the edge , looks like a hard stone buy the way