K813zra
Senior Member
Having spent more and more time with my Jnats I have decided that I am looking for something else in a finishing stone. What I currently use is a Yaginoshima Asagi. There is nothing wrong with this stone and I would like to keep it around to see what Naka-to it best pairs with, but there are some things about it that are not working for me in my progression at the moment.
The stone is not hard like my Shobudani Mizu Asagi, which I use for razors. It is much harder than any other stones that I have, though. These are said to be around the 3.5-4 range but I think mine is closer to Lv4. Without first raising a little mud it is a little too hard and glassy but still gets the job done, just a little slower than I would like. With a mud raised it is still almost harder than I would like. The issue is that jumping to it from either my Tajima, Ikarashi or Binsui seems like a little too much work for it.
I had asked about bridging the gap before and I can do that with Tsushima but I prefer that stone for my razors. So rather than go that route I was thinking that there might be something better suited to work in conjunction with the Naka-to stones that I have. Maybe something a little softer and faster. Nothing to extreme, though.
I use non wide double knives almost exclusively. For this particular job I have found that I am not overly fond of very muddy stones. Nothing wrong with some mud or even a moderate amount of it but nothing like my soft aoto that bleeds mud when I look at it.
So here is where I am at. I have been looking at the usual suspects. Hideriyama, Oouchi, Takashima and Ohira. Now, a lot of trusted dealers seem to carry an overlap of these stones. JNS, JKI, Aframes and Watanabe. The issue is that none of these guys seem to use the same scale for hardness so I am not sure what to expect when looking at stones.
From my understanding of reading this forum, Aframes typically carries stones that are harder than the JNS and JKI. Watanabe low balls the hardness, IE if he says it is a six then it is often a seven. Jon and Maxim normally have softer stones unless otherwise stated. That is my take away from reading hundreds of thread here. The problem is that I have nothing to apply that information to.
So, if looking at Aframes what should I be looking for? Anything that is at 8-8.2? These seem to be what he calls softer finishing stone. With Watanabe something that is 6-7? JNS and JKI are a little more straight forward.
That out of the way: any thoughts on picking up an Ohira that is not a suita? I assume these are Tomae but that does not really seem important. I ask because I see a lot of Ohira, asagi/kiita/iromono etc listed on a few of these sites that seem to have the same relative hardness as the suita and have a description saying that they are fairly fast. Thing is, they are much, much more affordable.
Sorry for the giant wall of text, I am just lost in a sea of stones. As I said, I have a number (a growing number) of Naka-to stones and those I have a better understanding of. However, I think it is time to start playing with Awase-do.
As an aside, I know someone is going to say it. Yes, I don't need these stones but I do want to try more of them. I have plenty of synthetic stones and that is just not what I am looking for.
Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.
The stone is not hard like my Shobudani Mizu Asagi, which I use for razors. It is much harder than any other stones that I have, though. These are said to be around the 3.5-4 range but I think mine is closer to Lv4. Without first raising a little mud it is a little too hard and glassy but still gets the job done, just a little slower than I would like. With a mud raised it is still almost harder than I would like. The issue is that jumping to it from either my Tajima, Ikarashi or Binsui seems like a little too much work for it.
I had asked about bridging the gap before and I can do that with Tsushima but I prefer that stone for my razors. So rather than go that route I was thinking that there might be something better suited to work in conjunction with the Naka-to stones that I have. Maybe something a little softer and faster. Nothing to extreme, though.
I use non wide double knives almost exclusively. For this particular job I have found that I am not overly fond of very muddy stones. Nothing wrong with some mud or even a moderate amount of it but nothing like my soft aoto that bleeds mud when I look at it.
So here is where I am at. I have been looking at the usual suspects. Hideriyama, Oouchi, Takashima and Ohira. Now, a lot of trusted dealers seem to carry an overlap of these stones. JNS, JKI, Aframes and Watanabe. The issue is that none of these guys seem to use the same scale for hardness so I am not sure what to expect when looking at stones.
From my understanding of reading this forum, Aframes typically carries stones that are harder than the JNS and JKI. Watanabe low balls the hardness, IE if he says it is a six then it is often a seven. Jon and Maxim normally have softer stones unless otherwise stated. That is my take away from reading hundreds of thread here. The problem is that I have nothing to apply that information to.
So, if looking at Aframes what should I be looking for? Anything that is at 8-8.2? These seem to be what he calls softer finishing stone. With Watanabe something that is 6-7? JNS and JKI are a little more straight forward.
That out of the way: any thoughts on picking up an Ohira that is not a suita? I assume these are Tomae but that does not really seem important. I ask because I see a lot of Ohira, asagi/kiita/iromono etc listed on a few of these sites that seem to have the same relative hardness as the suita and have a description saying that they are fairly fast. Thing is, they are much, much more affordable.
Sorry for the giant wall of text, I am just lost in a sea of stones. As I said, I have a number (a growing number) of Naka-to stones and those I have a better understanding of. However, I think it is time to start playing with Awase-do.
As an aside, I know someone is going to say it. Yes, I don't need these stones but I do want to try more of them. I have plenty of synthetic stones and that is just not what I am looking for.
Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.