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Vast majority of the stone ended up squeaky clean
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But there were some monstrous su hiding that I ended up trimming away
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It’s funny how small the stone feels now. A mere 3.5kg, less than half the original weight… but now far more usable without the crunchy burnt edges and a usable size. And it’s still just a smidge under 250x90x65
 
Pie said:
Whether this one is real or fake, I liked most stones that pass through Imanishi’s hands. View attachment 272065
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Since Hatanaka passed, the stamps are free to use, but most major sellers are honest, and many bought Nakayama stock many years ago.

Buy from trusted sellers unless you’re gambling, which is a fun thing to do if you know what you’re doing.
 
Rangen said:
Are you at all tempted to get out a saw and square it off at the thin end, or do you see no reason why anyone would do that?
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The thought never really crossed my mind.. partially because it’s not a huge stone and I wouldn’t want to lose much of the face, and partially because it’s such a rare stone.. I’ve never seen another suita from the same mine, although I’m not knee deep in the Yahoo auctions.

I’d love to have a tomo for this one tho, that’d be the one reason. If that piece cracks off because I’m polishing something stupid big/heavy, there’s a bright side 🙂
 
I have a bunch of Mikawa Nagura and finally used a Botan tonight to play with my W2 knife.
I really helped removing scratches from my Kaisei whetstone and can only imagine the ones
further up my progression like my Tenjo, Mejiro or my sword grade Koma Nagura will be like. 🥰

Here's one of my prized Mikawas that I can't wait to test out that I got from Watanabe 3 months ago.
It almost looks like a block Tiger Tail ice ceam with it's wild stripes even when dry. 😇

Mikawa Shiro Tenjo Nagura​


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Think I might have shown this one already, but worth showing again. As revelatory as my first good Nakayama.

About 65mm of Shobu suita I think to be from the tenjyou layer. Plain brown on the surface with Momiji popping up in the bottom half. No su layers or lines until you hit the bottom few mm.

This stone is hard, but has very grippy feedback and very aggressive cutting action - a rather unusual combination. Extreme speed and consistency. - it’s sublime for knives and for polishing.
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Made another nagura today. Good to do something physical. Crappy winter weather here so it’s easy to get stuck in a rut.

Still mining Maruoyama
 

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Steve56 said:
It’s kind of a joke post. Most of the mines are closed now, and have been for a long time. But there is a lot of stone in storage facilities awaiting to be released from the closed mines.
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And boy is there a lot of stone in storage…

I also have to imagine that if prices keep rising it’ll be once again profitable to open up some of the long closed mines if somehow the back stock of the really important mines like nakayama or ohira suddenly goes away
 
Dumb question but what exactly were all the mines opened up for in the first place? Why did they all shut down?

If the stones are so pricey and in such demand, why is the supply side so weird? (Ex: this is a $2k stone from a mine shut down in 1949)

What exactly were they doing with stones in 1949?

I almost get the feeling there was a metaphorical asteroid to all the Japanese mines
 
NickMinton said:
Dumb question but what exactly were all the mines opened up for in the first place? Why did they all shut down?

If the stones are so pricey and in such demand, why is the supply side so weird? (Ex: this is a $2k stone from a mine shut down in 1949)

What exactly were they doing with stones in 1949?

I almost get the feeling there was a metaphorical asteroid to all the Japanese mines
Click to expand...
The answer is pretty complicated and varies on the mine. They were all started as whetstone mines, someone particularly important before the advent of synthetic stones. From the 60s to the 80s, particularly on the back portion of that range, there was some strip mining that occurred that generated tons of ores. But because these are dominantly family driven enterprises and the market is, all things considered, quite small, they have massive stacks of ore but are content to dole it out at a leisurely rate.
 
ethompson said:
The answer is pretty complicated and varies on the mine. They were all started as whetstone mines, someone particularly important before the advent of synthetic stones. From the 60s to the 80s, particularly on the back portion of that range, there was some strip mining that occurred that generated tons of ores. But because these are dominantly family driven enterprises and the market is, all things considered, quite small, they have massive stacks of ore but are content to dole it out at a leisurely rate.
Click to expand...
Ah ok, that makes more sense. Didn’t think of the synthetic stone introduction but that would be impactful!
 
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