Badgertooth
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2015
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1. Oohira Karasu Suita - $450
207 x 71 x 31
Some black and red Renge though not in great abundance. The most appealing visual feature of this stone is the karasu mottling. It is on the easier end of the usage scale. I love it on wrought iron where it makes the shinier bits pop while uniformly greying out the darker bands. Finishes finer than I expected on core steel. Comes with urushi lacquer. Line is completely benevolent Would be more than okay with this not selling.
2. Oohira Suita - $240
198 x 69 x 20
To my mind this shares more in common with good Uchigumori than typical Suita. Soft, easy peezy to use, strongly abrasive without gripping or grabbing on cladding. Shiny bits on your blade wont shine quite as much as with the stone above but youll get more contrast. Commensurately, the edge is also less refined and more toothy. Beautiful surface patterning with lots of visual interest.
3. Oohira Renge Uchigumori - $450
210 x 71 x 19
The densest proliferation of red Renge Ive ever had the INTENSE pleasure of seeing. That it polishes like a dream is almost incidental. This came slightly domed like the top of a loaf of bread which is how sword sharpeners receive them, I have subsequently flattened and conditioned it as there were errant chisel marks that were making me stabby. Stone is sealed in marine grade lacquer. Leaves perhaps the darkest polish I have seen.
4. Oohira Renge Uchigumori - $450
205 x 79 x 22
Less dense Renge than above but every bit its equal as a polisher and sharpener and slightly bigger. This one, the edge chamfer from the doming is still visible. Sealed and conditioned. Polishing attributes identical to stone 3.
5. Hideriyama iromono - $350
205 x 85 x 45
Utter monster of a stone. Theres a Chinese onomatopoeia for the scrappiness of a stone in a good that goes a little something like shua shua. This has good shua-shua. And it is also a giant Kasumi wand, giving an even and dark finish as well. Every bit the equal of any Hakka. The edge finishes on the lower end of the finisher scale
6. Narutaki Awasedo - $320
200 x 75 x 25
One of those perfectly conformed slabs of Higashimono finisher. Dolphin smooth and with the perfect trifecta of attributes needed for bringing out banding and clouds in polishing. Those attributes are: Hardness, smoothness and fineness and to some extent friability. Stamps lapped off but photos documented. I'm leaving photos unedited for integrity sake (except the occasional exposure correction) but a careful look at this photo will show the banding on a Konosuke Togo Reigou gyuto.
7. Honyama Kiita - $150
195 x 70 x 20
Stunning edge taking and I mean, almost too sticky and nasty. Intensely abrasive. I'd like to see this in the hands of very skilled polisher looking to shine up the core of their knives. There are 3 Su-like inclusions and the occasional crunchy is dislodged. Its not detrimental to either edge or polish but full disclosure for when it happens in use.
8. Shou Honyama Soft Suita - $350
205 x 75 x 32
a big urushi sealed slab of unknown mine and hard for me to guess as it's about the softest I've ever used. with that comes ease of use, and a counterintuitive fineness not usually associated with a stone so soft. you'll see from my photo how quickly water is being absorbed. Some vestige of the Kyoto association stamps remain and I can dig up the photos i took at purchase for those for whom it matters.
9. Small Okudo Asagi - $160
180 x 60 x 23
Wood mounted to a nice stand. Almost black green - This stone and the finish it leaves forms part of a 3 part photo essay of sorts and an explanation of hardness. I used the same exposure on the shot of the polish it leave on my KU kato as i have on my next two stones. This Kato has a little low on the heel. This is clearly visible in the photo of the polish as it is too unyielding with too little mud to yield or roll up into the low.
10. Giant Aiiwatani - $300
210 x 76 x 50
The finish on my KU Kato is the second in a sequence. Note how the low on heel is less prominent. There is just that little bit more give in the stone and a little more mud. A near perfect middle ground. It photograpsh yellower than it is in real life so expect a more tan rock than pictured. It has some subtle striping, almost karasu like patterning and a benevolent little quarter of a line. It is otherwise a vast, smooth monolith banging out shiny polishes, despite its relative softness and ease of auto slurrying. Edges are also very fine but still firmly in the kitchen realm.
11. Soft Shoboudani Iromono - $200
205 x 75 x 25
The last in the triptych. Note how no low is visible and the uniformity of the polish. This stone is very soft and super easy to use and is a riot of autumnal colours. It can be scratchy but gently and uniformly so leaving a haze of striations rather than fugly strays. I include as macro a shot as I can of the scratch pattern. some inclusions towards the middle right of the stone and an uneven bottom. Thoroughly sealed with marine grade varnish.
12. Narutaki Iromono x 2 $220
195 x 75 x 20 at widest points
Speaking of Iromono! These puppies are creamy soft, kasumi wands. stamps long since lapped to test which reveals that stone four if viewed from top to bottom with the weed leaf stamp is the softest and coarsest, probably tapping out at the 5k range. Stones 2 and 3 are already spoken for leaving stone 1 which is finer than 4 and leaves a dark uniform finish of about 7k in refinement. Sides of those two look a little gnarly but are being sealed in triplicate.
each one of these knives was finished on one of those. But I must confess I forgot which is which except the togo reigou finished on the weed leaf stone 4
13. Aiiwatani Tomae - $200
195 x 70 x 25 (irregular bottom)
A little belter from my favourite shop. Half a shade away from being a true kiita and fast and fine and hard. Inky black slurry and an irregular bottom keeps the price in check but that sloping away of the bottom is unlikely to be an issue in your lifetime
14. Okudo Suita - $350
195 x 70 x 23
Hard, fine, and issue-free. Deep tan and cream on the surface which would has a tiny quarter line which is most unusual for Okudo. Has that incredible Okudo cutting strength and you need to work quickly with rinsing polishes as the swarf will stain your mild cladding in the stiction pattern. If you work around that you will have nasty edges and deeply dark reflective cladding and hazy-shine cores. One hell of a stone but maybe not your first stone.
15. Medium Hardness Iromono - $180
205 x 75 x 23
Ochres and reds jostle for attention on this one. easyish to use though not quite point and shoot. It rewards pressure with deep contrast (though I'll ask you to forgive my skaty, rushed finish). Bottom corners have slopes but nothing that a decent stone holder cant work around. Leaves aggressive edges of the tomato skin piercing variety
16. Aizu - $100
200ish x 70ish x 20ish
You know the drill, I have these lying around. Mid-grit natural champions. Bloody useful too.
17. Medium Hardness Honyama - $250
205 x 75 x 26
Effortlessly easy to use. Just the right middle ground of hardness/softness and a polishers dream. a non-descript cream colour dominates but it won't matter a jot when dolphin-colour slurry is cosseting your blade road. Finishes fine and pops the highs on wrought and brightens up the lows too. Almost too easy on single bevel. There's a little wedge missing out the bottom.
18. Namazu - $180
190ish x 70ish x 20ish
An honest little workhorse. Nothing flash but gets the job done with a decent polish and good lower-end finisher edge. It was purportedly a namazu stone but I think we can generously just call it a slight blotch rather than a true namazu pattern. Black urushi lacquer should keep her going for some time
factor in about US$35 per kilogram/2lb for shipping to most destinations as all prices are re-shipping.
That was exhausting but please PM any questions if you have any as most stones have additional photos etc. I have a small window to get a few bits out pre-weekend, then the rest will have to go in drabs over the next two weeks, as I start the hamster-wheel of work etc again.
