I scored a Birmingham Anchor Old English straight razor and tested some Mejiro I already had with some I picked up during a trip to Japan. 6 of the 8 Mejiro I have abrade steel at markedly different speed and manner. I decided to try and put three in order of coarseness and speed and get from Botan to Tomo using only Mejiro. The result was excellent, I set the bevel on a Botan Toishi and went Mejiro, Mejiro, and Mejiro on a Nakayama Asagi. I got HHT 4 before stropping.
Degrees of Mejiro.
- Thread starter Bayamontate
- Start date
Maybe the stamps on the Mejiro were wrong! haha 
Do you happen to know how are the Mejiro identified as Mejiro? Is it just from a mine/layer, or a grading done by someone? I guess I could find out with a few clicks/searches on google but what the heck
Do you happen to know how are the Mejiro identified as Mejiro? Is it just from a mine/layer, or a grading done by someone? I guess I could find out with a few clicks/searches on google but what the heck
- Thread starter
- #3
They are all Mejiro, just different cutters.
Sometimes, a Mejiro is not just a Mejiro.
I was thinking a Mejiro might be a Mexican stone...
Maybe the stamps on the Mejiro were wrong! haha
Do you happen to know how are the Mejiro identified as Mejiro? Is it just from a mine/layer, or a grading done by someone? I guess I could find out with a few clicks/searches on google but what the heck
Mejiro is the name of the layer. Someone can surely link you the image of the mine. There's something like 13 layers, I think 3 different Botan's, Mejiro, Koma, Tenjou, Chu, etc. I never saved it, but I'm sure one of our Jnat guys has it somewhere.
As with any natural, variances are going to occur. By adding in common factors like the steel used and the base stone you will be honing on, you could raise slurry and observe the speed at which steel is being abraded as well as inspect the edge after each stone. Photographing the edge would be an easy way for someone new to understand what is happening to the bevel and would make it easier to compare your results but once you do this over and over again, you get a good handle on what the bevel is saying to you.
Example: Raise slurry on base stone with mejiro 1. Take razor that was honed to state x (call it 8k for arguments sake). Perform 10 half strokes (again for arguments sake). Observe color of slurry and inspect bevel.
Repeat for any remaining stones. Attempt to repeat test with similar pressure/length of stroke. Again, once you do this a million times you are pretty much accustomed to using the same pressure/length of stroke/honing style so creating a repeatable scenario isn't that difficult.
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- #11
Lots of honing trying new things, going against conventional and non-conventional wisdom and ignoring 99.9% of the bull**** you read on boards. Test stuff yourself and have fun.
Thanks, I suspected so but didn't know for sure!
No problem, hopefully someone has the image saved. It's basically a 2d cartoon of the mountain they're mined on with each layer drawn in and labeled. Nice little bit of info.
- Thread starter
- #14
Thanks, there's an english translated one floating around there too, but that works.
1 is Mejiro, 2 is tenjyou, etc.
1 is Mejiro, 2 is tenjyou, etc.
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- #16
Damn what a botan. You could hone on that
I think he did: "I set the bevel on a Botan toishi (stone)."
That is a seriously cool razor....
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- #20
Thank you kcb, I'm going to leave her as is. I cleaned up some pitting, the scales are severely warped but she's going to stay original.
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