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Steve, you have a problem. A serious, serious problem. When you are ready to enter treatment, I will hold your stone collection. Fantastic looking stones!

Its a good thing I don't know where you get all your stones from. I'd have serious problems! Nice score!

Here's the little pieces I found under my new kiita. They are smaller than I thought, and very thin, but I could maybe get more if I'm careful.
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I love that golden kiita.

Initial test on the kiita with base complete. Holy smokes. Leaves a mirror finish and cuts very fast. Comes in at 6mm thick, so it's obviously been someone's favorite stone for a long time!

Well here they are. Honestly the one with the base was the only one I had interest in, and I think it's going to be the best one in the lot. Now I just have to test them all.
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Not by much ;)

I really am excited about these. The thin ones have my interest.

Some new additions on their way.
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In those pictures it's hard to read due to the glare, but good eye. I took this on before coating it. It does appear that the maruka circle is on the opposite side of what I'm used to seeing. For the...

Not trying to burst your bubble, but I don't think that is, or ever was, a maruka stamp. If the stone is good, then it's good. Fretting over the stamp is going to drive you crazy lol.

Ok I ended up putting 5 coats of shellac. I want to preserve what is left of the fading ink stamp. This stone is very dense. I can't wait to do a real testing session.
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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....

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.

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,...

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...

I started lapping it. Holy smokes it's a hard stone. It tried to eat my dmt 325. I think it's one of those top of the line maruka kiita you see selling for several thousand dollars. The feedback is...

Well the mail man brought all kinds of goodies today. The other items are a full nagura set and an O'hira suita. I'm still in a state of shock over this maruka.247743

Yup. The seller bought an estate lot from a pro woodworker. All the tools were top of the line, and they simply said the stones probably were too. And the pics were horrible. Blurry, and didn't show...

OMG!!! I'm so excited right now guys. Holy smokes!!! I gambled on that stone, and hit the freaking jackpot. It's a stamped maruka kiita! 247733
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Garrett has not been active on this site in quite some time. He also hasn't made any updates to his website in about the same amount of time. I hope you get everything figured out. I'll send him an...

That one that looks like a piece of wood is so cool.

Stefan, would it be rude of me if I asked how many jnats you own? And how many of those are maruka? I'm just curious because I thought I have HAD pretty bad, but after seeing your posts I might only...

I just gambled on ebay. Fingers crossed that I scored a full size kiita... please be advised. I like risks and this method of shopping for jnats should never be contemplated by beginners.
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Lately I've only been using one synthetic stone. My kiita stones from alex cut so fast that in a matter of seconds all 1k stria are completely gone. They are also fine enough to stop there, but I...