Thread: From Kyoto with Love

Hello friends, bassguy here.
A drummer friend and his wife took their usual trip to her home town, Kyoto and just returned today with a few surprises for me. Before he left I armed him with a few words like Nakayama, Asagi, Karasu, etc., as well as JimR's very helpful Japanese Hone Vocabulary. Here's what he found!
Not including driving them home from the airport today, both stones cost me 100$US. Glee!



The one on the left comes right from Nakayama, weighs 955g, and is 14cm long x 9cm wide x 4cm thick. The knife and sword shop they found these in said it is rare because they just don't see new Nakayama stones any more. The piece is very pure in composition throughout with some orange skin along the side poking through. I'll wait for Jim to weigh in on this but it looks like a pale Asagi to me with tiny black speckling. Not blue, but more grey than yellow. To my eyes, on my laptop, the pictures look pretty close to accurate. Actually it's the same color as a piece of Maruka tomonagura ZethLent sold me ages ago. This stone releases a very complex earth smell when wet, reminds me of being in Japan in a very strong way. This stone also sounds similar to my Nakayama asagi when tapped or stroked: quiet and sandy.

The one on the right comes from "next door to Nakayama", not sure on the name of the mine or mountain, but the shop owners maintained it is of equal quality to the Nakayama stone, but more dense. It weighs 489g, measures 14.5cm long, 8cm wide, and 1cm thick. I'd call it kiita, with some kind of patterning that to my ignorant mind seems like karasu. They cannot be felt under the finger or blade. This stone also releases a unique smell, they all do, but this one doesn't remind me of anything. The sound this stone makes when tapped or stroked sounds more glasslike than the Nakayama. It reminds me of the sounds lava rocks from McCullough Range just south of Las Vegas make, glassy, hollow, and almost bell like. The shop owner demonstrated in the shop that this one is more dense than the Nakayama above.

I did the water test, slurry test, and did some passes with an old razor to inspect under the microscope. Here they are next to my current rock star, a Nakayama asagi of no distinction except some great edges.



My initial thoughts are wildy speculative at the moment. They'll all make fine hones once I learn what they like and don't like but I think they are all of relatively the same hardness, with the asagi taking a slight edge because it released slurry slower than the other two. However the two new stones seemed to erase Chosera 1k scratches in very short order and produced a scratch pattern of equal depth and polish. I don't really know if I'll be able to make any conclusions until I've honed razors on all three, shaved with them, and done it again. So, maybe by this time next year? Or maybe I'll take them over to Max (a visit is long over due) and have him play with them a bit.

Best of all, my friend and his wife so impressed the knife dealer with their knowledge of stones that he promised to seek out exceptional stones for them the next time they visit, as well as putting them in touch with a few stone whole sellers in Kyoto. It was a very enjoyable experience for them as well, the old man of the shop shared stories of going into the mines to pick out the stones himself. I hope to visit with them next time.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for taking the time to share this with all of us.
You sound very knowledgable. I hope to visit japan some day

Hoping to head back to Japan later this year or next year . Will need to hit the knife shop in Kagoshima - that had an enormous selection of natural stones !
Thanks for sharing your tale and the great pictures !

Cheers and best of luck .

Scott

Thanks for the kind words.
I only know what I know from this here forum and the kindness and wisdom availed by no less than a search function therein.
I was hoping to hear a few opinions on the color description of each rock.

Justin
I have purchased one or two razors from you in the past and the edges were certainly shave-ready. Your discussion here about Japanese hones certainly validates my original opinion about your honing prowess. You are one to be believed.

I offer this opinion to other members so they can more easily decipher who is who.......

JERRY

Thank you Jerry for the kind words.
Today I had chance to audition the Nakayama on a shave. I took my Panter De Lux which was just a bit off shave ready, and tried a bunch of stuff just to see what works. This stone is FAST. I've never seen metal show up in the slurry that fast before. 10 circles and 10 x strokes each side basically erased the sins of previous usage. It's a small stone so circles are preferred. The shave was really nice actually, so sharp but so smooth you wouldn't know until you made a mistake. Pretty impressed with this little hunk a chunk a Kyoto.

I wonder if I'd get a bit more help with the Japanese if this were in the Hones thread...
Update on the non Nakayama kiita stone: I tried using it with Botan nagura and the slurry it created wasn't white, but the color of the stone. This means (I think) that this stone isn't hard enough to use with nagura progression. A good friend recommended I use "a very light touch. Backstrokes might be better, too. Keep excess slurry down."
Back to the honing tests. I honed up an old Sheffield with nagura progression on the Nakayama, then for kicks finished it on the other kiita and will test it tomorrow in the shaving arena.

Turns out the stone on the right is an Ozuko. Haven't spend too much time with this one yet.
I had great results yesterday from the Nakayama on a solingen blade, but only after I stropped. I don't think I'll be shaving straight off the hone again, it was quite rough. Once it was stropped though it was very clearly one of the best edges I've had, left my face nick free and sticky smooth with little effort.

*EDIT: this is actually what they said:
"The name of the mountain is "Ohzuku," but there is a possibility it is spelled "Ohduku," "Ooduku," or "Oduku," depending on which phonetic translation they use in converting Japanese symbols to romanized letters."