And some gratuitous glamour shots of the big-ass Okudo
J-Nat Club
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It would appear to be, ‘main mountain’ is usually a reference to Nakayama in the 30s-40s I believe, but possibly an old Shobudani.
It was a Yahoo Japan auction.
shobudonnie
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Ohira? Shoubu?
Neither the vendor nor I know for certain. The quality is sublime though, so Im satisfied with that alone!
This is probably the best suita that I have, a full bench Nakayama sunashi suita on a fitted stand. It has a stamp on it, but it’s not really legible. Very fast and very fine.
shobudonnie
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Yes. That’s all that matters.
Here’s another smaller leopard-spot Nakayama sunashi suita, 60-cut that I bought from Takeshi Aoki back in the good old days. It’s blazing fast and lives in a kitchen drawer for touchups. Max at JNS had a bigger piece of what had to be the same ore for $1,400 and I laughed at the price, but wished that I’d dug deep and got it too. It will cut the modern PM steel.
say cheeese
This one is a bench size Narutaki (it had Narutaki stamps) ceiling suita from Alex Gilmore. This one is more of a polisher than a cutter compared to the floor suita, but an incredibly mellow knife finisher. It can both polish and finish, but it’s slower than the other two of course.
What is it? Do I need one…
Couldn’t tell you the mine, but it is great. The kind of stone that really rewards hard work before the final polish. Pushes the limits of how fine you can go and not be unusable for kitchen knives.
shobudonnie
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It most closely resembles Shoubudani. And yes, you need one. Until after you have bought many, and realize you didn’t need all that much afterall…
I don't really agree with this fwiw. Performance wise this is a step in hardness / keenness beyond any Shoubu or Ohira I've tried. Of course there are oddballs from every mine, so it could be Shoubu. But I don't agree that is most resembles that mine. The surface texture and near translucence of the white / cream base coloring is closest to a Shinden I also have. I'd also throw Okudo, Narutaki, Sangoyama, and probably some others in as equally likely sources.
Best not to be too worried about it or engage in too much speculation.
shobudonnie
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My question is, why would you need for an edge to be THAT fine? What exactly is the benefit of a <10000 edge over an 8000ish edge?
2,000
For a kitchen knife? No reason. For razors and carpentry tools something something this fine is preferable which is why they're typically finished on asagi or kiita.
Also polishing is a thing...
user 16756
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I dunno man you sharpen knives with the silly rocks and either the edge works or it doesn't for the food you prep, with the knife you use.
We all know that these things aren't the same as synths yet sometimes we insist on acting like they arent.
Personally I dont have a JNat I think is too fine for edges for any of the carbon steel gyutos I use. In the entire set of ones Ive owned, Ive had ONE that I felt that way about and it was also so brutally hard I dont even think you would want to sharpen razors on it.
user 16756
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Here's a few I don't think I've posted. Several of these came from forum members, and there are two in particular (third left bottom row, middle top) I really, really wanted for reasons of collection "completeness"
Those fat ao renge
user 16756
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if you mean top left, that's an Okudo Kuro Renge I got from Milan Gravier.
The next two in the top are from you (though you already knew that, and the Aizu).
L -> R top then bottom
Okudo Kuro Renge
Maruoyama Kuro Renge
Ohira Uchigumori
Natsuya
Aizu
Nakayama Namito
Ohira
Ohira
Ohira
Aoto
Epic, always wanted to get my hands on one of those. Someday Im sure.
user 16756
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I owe you a favor, so some time when I am not as busy/lazy I'll lend it to you to play with for a bit.
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If you scrape that edge along your face at a low angle, you will soon know the answer.
shobudonnie
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How do you like the nakayama namito?
user 16756
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In terms of balancing speed, fineness and feel, it's the best polisher I own. It's not that much better than my other favorites, but it always just feels a bit more pleasant, and it's super duper pure. I have a couple of other stones that are close, but most are similarly expensive.
I prefer other, harder feeling stones for edges.
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Makes my small collection of oddball stones look like gravel.
user 16756
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I wouldn't worry too much about it. All the work that takes real skill happens on comparatively inexpensive coarse syths, anyway. Plus, I've got several smaller stones I think are keepers myself.
I have more or less set myself up for life. Doesn't mean I will never buy another one again, but I doubt I'll get through the stones I have in my lifetime. At which point, should some place like this still exist, I'll arrange to have them given to young folks starting out on their own polishing journey.
Yabba dabba doo, I’m ready for some cashew….
shobudonnie
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Damn that thing is poppin. Please do share your experiences.
My initial testing was what Takeshi Aoki does, rub a bi-metal knife on it using clear water. My blade of choice was my little Takeda ko bunka.
To use words like Takeshi uses, it makes the jigane bright and the hagane mirror. A quite bright effect but it did not streak. The stone had a hard look to it, but it isn’t as hard as I thought that it might be it slurried easily with a small worn out 1200 Atoma plate in the area off the stamps. It also absorbed water like a normally hard stone. I then honed a straight razor on it and shaved with the edge this morning on thin diamond plate slurry, and it was excellent, a very smooth, forgiving edge. It would be a good stone to finish a ‘meat’ knife with, especially seafood.
I’m not sure of the mine, but I would guess Shobudani or Nakayama. It’s old, Alex Gilmore thinks 1930s-1940s. It has some oxidized stone on the surface which I could feel going away while honing the razor.
That’s it so far, right now the first coat of cashew is curing.
