Show us your Japanese Natural Whetstones

[David]

Really nice looking stone Steve!

 

[Steve56]

Thank you folks

Cheers, Steve

 

[Steve56]

A couple of interesting stamped stones, an iro and a kind of kiita. Usually iro like this are softer stones, but this one is not, it's a hard razor-grade stone as the stamps would indicate. It has every color of the rainbow in it, blue, purple, rouge, (really) yellow, and green. Alex had a bench size hard iro like this 7-8 years ago I guess. The skin on one long side of this iro is also that 'burnt toast' black Nakayama skin. Preliminary tests on diamond slurry are really. really. good.

The larger stone seems a bit harder if anything and maybe not quite as fine on diamond slurry, but it needs to be lapped and tested with a good tomo. It's a good razor quality stone also and I hope to figure it out soon.

Cheers, Steve

 

[Brooksie967]

I wanted that one

 

[alx gilmore]

You guys are on a beautiful joy ride. Keep it up,
Alex

 

[Steve56]

Figured the kiita out, it's so darned fast even a light diamond slurry makes mud pretty fast, so possibly some slurry dulling. Adding 20-25 clear-water strokes brings up a very comfortable edge. Now to work a bit more with that iro.

Cheers, Steve

 

[RusenBG]

Those Iromonos are fantastic stones - Narutaki ???????Those 2 Iro s - yours and Bruksy , are top of the shelf stones

 

[Steve56]

Hi Rusen,

I would guess mine is Nakayama based on the sparkling 'burnt toast' skin and that Hatanaka marketed a lot of high grade Nakayama stones. The camera of course cannot capture the specular highlights properly, but the skin is fairly conclusive if you believe the 'skin descriptions'.

Cheers, Steve

 

[RusenBG]

Yes i have Nakyama Iromono and it has the same black kawa on the side , but mine is levell 4 , still very fine .
I was thinking Narutaki as Alex said once that the stones from Narutaki are almost same as the Nakyamas , as the mines are close , but harder stones came from narutaki .
This Iro looks very hard , and that was the reason i sugest that Amazing stones are those 2 and very expensive i think .
You have a taste for a top stones - karasus , kiitas and Iros
Gorgeus stone Steve I like Brooksys stone also a lot - i think they came from the same place isnt it

 

[alx gilmore]

Rusen

I would agree that the Naurtaki, Nakayama & Okudo share some of the same characteristics, not all but some. And the reason they share a few indicators are because those three mines were located within a few thousand meters from each other. The Oozuku and the Shobudani share some similarities also with the Nakayama mine, but fewer because the were farther away. The cloudy or foggy grain pattern is shared by Nakayama, Okudo and shobudani, that round tree ring pattern is shared by Narutaki and Nakayama, but the black sparkly mineral element is singular to Nakayama and Steve's photos show that very well. Great photos Steve.

There was some debate a few years ago about identifying the specific mine sources of Japanese "tennen toishi" stones by their physical characteristics. Some major fellows and one in particular on these forums stated that it was impossible and that no one could tell which mine a particular stone came from unless he had picked it up or dug it at the mine him or herself. Finally after much hemming and hawing he claimed emphatically that there was only one person in Japan who could distinguish, about a week later he softened and pronounced that maybe there maybe could be a few (but only in Japan) persons who could tell a stones pedigree by their physical characteristics.

Keep in mind that this is just geology. The Cotucule mines or the Arkansas mines or the ruby mines in India, each specific geological location has local stone formations that might have been folded or rolled, layered with alternate materials, contain colored minerals or injected with gases, that were heated or cooled and in the case of the Jnats were scraped off from one tectonic plate to another. The notation of the physical indicators found in any stone all add up to act as tells or hints as to where, in some cases almost to the square meter, where that stone was found undisturbed in the ground 100 years ago. If you can build up a collection of samples you can use them to make educated guesses yourself, if you have someone to mentor you along that helps too.

Also remember that the hardness of a stone has more to do with compaction than anything and that each mine had layers of softer and harder stones so you cannot tell alone from which mine a stone came from by hardness of it. You can surmise that a harder stone came from a deeper level but that should also take into consideration other factors like the surrounding terrain.

Alex,

 

[Steve56]

Thank you for the informative post Alex, very helpful indeed!

Cheers, Steve

 

[RusenBG]

Thanks Alex , very thrue info , as aways It is good to have a persone that knows the mine sites and geology , of the Tennen Toishi .
Those colorfull stones and the wellow stones are amazing - a thruely another class of stones .

 

[Brooksie967]

Giant Mail Call today!!! These suita are incredible and the vintage nakayama. Well, she's a keeper.

 

[Brooksie967]

Shiro Suita

 

[Brooksie967]

Nakayama

 

[Steve56]

Very nice Jeremy! Any honing reports? I assume the suita are knife hones?

Cheers, Steve

 

[Brooksie967]

Steve, both these suita are heavy and hard. The okudo is over 900 grams. Unfortunately they SEEM to be prefinishers for razors but I'm going to shave off them anyways. They are both ideal knife finishers though. They leave nothing to desire for a knife stone.

 

[Xury]

The only info I have on this one is that it was sold as a "Takao Natural Whetstone", it was sold as a prefinisher, but it is very hard and it looks pretty.

 

[Gamma]

Ooo - nice spotting...

 

[Steve56]

Pretty stone Xury!

Cheers, Steve