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 天然石 石 天然石販売 さゞれ銘 本山 世山石 山城銘 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 )