Anyone want to help me ID / tell me anything about this jnat...?

[cotedupy]

At least I'm pretty sure it's Japanese...

This belongs to a friend who got it with another stone as a cheap ebay punt, apparently they came from the estate sale of an ex barber. All sorts of things seem to be going on here; lots of Su, Renge, Goma, shimmery green stripes (whatever they're called), &c. &.c.

Bevel polishes nicely enough if you avoid the some of the slightly coarser goma bits. Main scratch pattern I'd equate to around 5k, though the stone isn't very fast on hard steel. And can apparently be used to polish/finish a razor bevel, at least if you're a hot s**t razor honer like the person it belongs to, I doubt I could use it for that very well. 3.5 ish hardness, maybe (??)

I'm really not an expert on jnats, so any or all of my impressions and terminology above may be wildly misleading. But anyone seen anything like it? I assume some kind of quite old Suita?

 

[cotedupy]

(P.S. I know this is a difficult game! I'm not necessarily looking for a mine name, just if anybody had seen anything similar, or had any thoughts or anything...)

 

[Skylar303]

The back have kawa?

 

[Pie]

At least I'm pretty sure it's Japanese...

This belongs to a friend who got it with another stone as a cheap ebay punt, apparently they came from the estate sale of an ex barber. All sorts of things seem to be going on here; lots of Su, Renge, Goma, shimmery green stripes (whatever they're called), &c. &.c.

Bevel polishes nicely enough if you avoid the some of the slightly coarser goma bits. Main scratch pattern I'd equate to around 5k, though the stone isn't very fast on hard steel. And can apparently be used to polish/finish a razor bevel, at least if you're a hot s**t razor honer like the person it belongs to, I doubt I could use it for that very well. 3.5 ish hardness, maybe (??)

I'm really not an expert on jnats, so any or all of my impressions and terminology above may be wildly misleading. But anyone seen anything like it? I assume some kind of quite old Suita?


View attachment 176880

View attachment 176882

View attachment 176881
View attachment 176878

View attachment 176879

Whoa that thing looks funky. I have an old barber hone that shares the color scheme, but quite muted in comparison. No goma, su, or renge in mine tho, it’s quite fine and surprisingly soft. Seeing as how I have no pedigree info for it, it’s a complete mystery. As is this one.

Soooo in fewer words, I have no idea. @refcast ?

 

[refcast]

Yeah I don't have a clue, not good with the finisher identification, that's more Alex gilmore and so Yamashita.

 

[McMan]

I'll throw a peanut from the cheap seats... and with the caveat that when it comes to natural stones, I depend on people that actually know about them; I am not one of those people

Some variety of suita with renge? (The layers on the side stand out to me. I remember seeing like that on a few suita. Again, though, could be totally wrong and also this isn't based on seeing/knowing enough stones to have an opinion.)
https://www.aframestokyo.com/vintage-renge-suita-japanese-natural-sharpening-stone-678g-1l67818.html

 

[cotedupy]

Thanks all! Seems to confirm what I thought, i.e. old XXXX Renge Suita. Thank you for that link @McMan - you can certainly see some kind of familial resemblance there.

Anyone know if there's a name for the kind of green wavy line bits on it, out of interest?

@Skylar303 - I think it does have some kawa yes. At least I assume that's what the dark parts here are:

 

[ethompson]

Looks kinda like some tenjyou suita in coloration (ish) I’ve seen. Maybe the patterning could be described and suminagashi? I’m a certified newb in the jnat world though, so I definitely don’t know haha

 

[ethompson]

I'll throw a peanut from the cheap seats... and with the caveat that when it comes to natural stones, I depend on people that actually know about them; I am not one of those people

Some variety of suita with renge? (The layers on the side stand out to me. I remember seeing like that on a few suita. Again, though, could be totally wrong and also this isn't based on seeing/knowing enough stones to have an opinion.)
https://www.aframestokyo.com/vintage-renge-suita-japanese-natural-sharpening-stone-678g-1l67818.html

Every time I’m on their site I see that stone and feel lusty…

 

[Pie]

Similar pink blush, grey/blue lines on a green and tan background.

barber hone indeed.. does it actually leave a scratch pattern on the iron? Or is that from previous stones?

 

[cotedupy]

Similar pink blush, grey/blue lines on a green and tan background. View attachment 176954

barber hone indeed.. does it actually leave a scratch pattern on the iron? Or is that from previous stones?

Oh yeah that's very similar. Yours? What it is?

Yeah that scratch pattern on the cladding is from the stone, though it doesn't seem to scratch the core steel like that, in fact the stone is very slow for sharpening. Still I wouldn't have thought it was fine enough for a razor... but my friend is a bit of an expert there, and he likes it a lot for honing.

Looks kinda like some tenjyou suita in coloration (ish) I’ve seen. Maybe the patterning could be described and suminagashi?

Ta! I'll have a search about those names / terms. You're certainly well ahead of me in knowing about these things!

 

[Pie]

Oh yeah that's very similar. Yours? What it is?

Yeah that scratch pattern on the cladding is from the stone, though it doesn't seem to scratch the core steel like that, in fact the stone is very slow for sharpening. Still I wouldn't have thought it was fine enough for a razor... but my friend is a bit of an expert there, and he likes it a lot for honing.




Ta! I'll have a search about those names / terms. You're certainly well ahead of me in knowing about these things!

It sounds interesting.. perhaps not fast enough for knives? But not overly fine either, as the scratch pattern shows. Curious one! Quite bold in terms of appearance too.

The one I have is a refcast special, it was also an old barber hone of unknown origins. It doesn’t seem like a suita, but the layering on the sides is definitely there.

I did a quick session tonight to refresh my memory..

Pretty fast, one spirited pass. Looking at this actually suprises me. It likes pressure..?

Quite fine, feels soft, creamier mud than most fine stones. Unusual feel to me, very very smooth. Wild guess maybe around 8k.

Less than ideal for blasting out banding in wrought iron. Quite a nice mirror tho!

I polished just the tip of the mule, original finish from a soft Hideriyama. Roughly 2 spirited passes on a bit of slurry. Some comparisons under some harsh lighting.

A few pictures explains far better than me wrestling and losing to the English language.

Edit: I apologize for the photo dump, I sometimes get far too excited about these sorts of things..

 

[cotedupy]

It sounds interesting.. perhaps not fast enough for knives? But not overly fine either, as the scratch pattern shows. Curious one! Quite bold in terms of appearance too.

The one I have is a refcast special, it was also an old barber hone of unknown origins. It doesn’t seem like a suita, but the layering on the sides is definitely there. View attachment 176966
I did a quick session tonight to refresh my memory..

View attachment 176968
Pretty fast, one spirited pass. Looking at this actually suprises me. It likes pressure..?
View attachment 176969Quite fine, feels soft, creamier mud than most fine stones. Unusual feel to me, very very smooth. Wild guess maybe around 8k.
View attachment 176967Less than ideal for blasting out banding in wrought iron. Quite a nice mirror tho!

I polished just the tip of the mule, original finish from a soft Hideriyama. Roughly 2 spirited passes on a bit of slurry. Some comparisons under some harsh lighting. View attachment 176971View attachment 176970

A few pictures explains far better than me wrestling and losing to the English language.

Edit: I apologize for the photo dump, I sometimes get far too excited about these sorts of things..

Well that's a pretty gorgeous stone! And lovely polish . There's certainly something about the sides and colouring that's similar, and interesting that yours was also cut as a barber hone.

I'm not quite sure how much of the scratch pattern on my pic above on is from the su and goma. The middle 1/3rd of it, where there's less of that, did seem to be nicer for polishing on. Gonna play around with it a little more, and put a razor on it later too. Vamos a ver...