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Japan Tool - Technique&Knowledge - Natural Stone Mines

I talked to him also, He never got to the point where he said he would pick one for me. He did say he had a bunch...

He's the only one I know of that has the smiley little goofballs on his whetstone pics.

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I came pretty close to buying...

Most of the stones on his site with these markings are labeled "Japanese whetstone central Kyoto Honyama Yamashiro"

If you look at the seller's site, virtually every stone there has the same characters on the top. I would guess that it is the company's mark, or finishing stone, or (with my expertise) "eat at...