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KenjiF said:
My very favorite stones are ones that can bring out details and maintain contrast.

@simona if you take a very high consistent grit synth the mirror finish will be no contrast (all mirrored) because everything is reflecting light the same.

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10k nanohone synth mirror.

The more smooth a surface the more mirrored it becomes as the light is all reflected in the same directions.

I think what is happening is that in a natural stone you have different grits of different hardnesses. Some of the grits will cut the core steel and others will not be hard enough to cut the core steel but hard enough to cut the soft iron (for clad knives). The compression of those grits (or hardness) will also allow it to burnish your steel which is a different process to just cutting the steel.

The more smooth a surface the more mirrored it becomes. In the right mix this allows you to cut and/or burnish the core steel like the above synth does while cutting the iron in such a way that traps light (not as smooth and more irregular). This gives you contrast and what most mean by contrast.

Details I think are more complicated. I think within the cladding there can be harder and softer parts of the iron where it has been folded, different materials (like wrought or Damascus) and also different reactivity (think of etching). Your looking for contrast between those irregularities. When you have that the details become more apparent. We are still talking about contrast but on a smaller scale and this is what people mean when they talk of ‘details’.

Narutaki Jnat finish
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Thanks for that!
 
jedy617 said:
Unfortunately looks like I'm becoming a bit of a rock addict.

This one is really cool, a beautiful karasu, unknown mine and strata, but reasonably soft, like a 3.5+. Got a good deal on it. Someone with more knowledge than me guessed shobu or nakayama

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I think I bought it's baby brother
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Sold as a Shomotoyama - kossy...?
 
This nagura has been throwing random scratches ever since I got it but I seem to have finally gotten a clean surface. Freshly lapped it’s almost creamy but if you burnish the surface with a nagura until it’s glossy it suddenly becomes glassy and hard. Versatile stone.
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ethompson said:
This nagura has been throwing random scratches ever since I got it but I seem to have finally gotten a clean surface. Freshly lapped it’s almost creamy but if you burnish the surface with a nagura until it’s glossy it suddenly becomes glassy and hard. Versatile stone.
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Interesting specimen!

Nagura bench stones are super versatile indeed. Someone here said they are underrated and misunderstood and I am inclined to agree. They really are unique but you have to learn to manage the surface.

I quite like the one I got from you
 
Got this really nice Naka kitta. The photo doesn't capture it but it is almost fluorescent orange in parts. Originally I was getting a few stray scratches so I dug the lines even though I couldn't feel anything. Feels like a 4 in hardness but is super fine and pretty fast.
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Here is a kiri straight from a Mauro shiro suita. Details galore, maintains heavy contrast and first time seeing details pop in the iron. Under direct light, the core steel started splitting light into different colors like a crystal or hologram... very fun stone.
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KenjiF said:
Got this really nice Naka kitta. The photo doesn't capture it but it is almost fluorescent orange in parts. Originally I was getting a few stray scratches so I dug the lines even though I couldn't feel anything. Feels like a 4 in hardness but is super fine and pretty fast.
View attachment 259418


Here is a kiri straight from a Mauro shiro suita. Details galore, maintains heavy contrast and first time seeing details pop in the iron. Under direct light, the core steel started splitting light into different colors like a crystal or hologram... very fun stone.View attachment 259419
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Picture of the Shiro Suita you ended up with, please.
Also, what Kiri is that?

Excellent looking result, by the way
 
Yeah Naka and yellow. Other than that, advertised as a hard suita. It took a while to get even this much slurry during hamaguri, and by then my little yanagi was done. It even raised a small burr.

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Okay this is a stone that I'll probably never sharpen with. Gifted from a great friend of mine. Stories of this stone trades back all the way to warring states period also known as the Sengoku Period in Japan, which is like 1500 ish. Believed that this stone is from one of the students of Muramasa Sengo named Fujiwara Masazane ( i loved this story he told me but it is indeed very hard to believe, you guys tell me) That stone then get passed on generation to generation to the one I'm holding in my hands. Due to specific sharpening style of katana, the stone is now an oval shape on each side which kinda does tell it has been used for a very long time. I believe it is a Ohira shikiutigumori suita with characteristics of purple renge and karasu. (btw if you guys ever want top top top quality Jnat and happens to speak Japanese, go to knife shops, take some tours, talk a lot, buy some knives and ask them out for a drink, some of these knife forgeries will even give you stones like this for free or very good offer).

Lastly, wanna take a guess how much one of these would cost you? ( If you make within 50 USD range one I'll find a way to ship you some stones, taking first 10 guesses )
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jnat0215 said:
Okay this is a stone that I'll probably never sharpen with. Gifted from a great friend of mine. Stories of this stone trades back all the way to warring states period also known as the Sengoku Period in Japan, which is like 1500 ish. Believed that this stone is from one of the students of Muramasa Sengo named Fujiwara Masazane ( i loved this story he told me but it is indeed very hard to believe, you guys tell me) That stone then get passed on generation to generation to the one I'm holding in my hands. Due to specific sharpening style of katana, the stone is now an oval shape on each side which kinda does tell it has been used for a very long time. I believe it is a Ohira shikiutigumori suita with characteristics of purple renge and karasu. (btw if you guys ever want top top top quality Jnat and happens to speak Japanese, go to knife shops, take some tours, talk a lot, buy some knives and ask them out for a drink, some of these knife forgeries will even give you stones like this for free or very good offer).

Lastly, wanna take a guess how much one of these would cost you? ( If you make within 50 USD range one I'll find a way to ship you some stones, taking first 10 guesses )
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I can tell you now based on the saw marks that stone is not that old. Sometime after 1920's probably. I also have a similar stone and it is from Narutaki mine. I also have a older Uchigumori that was curved like that, but had hand sawn and scraped sides which would mean it was probably older than 1920's when it was mined and cut.
 
jnat0215 said:
Okay this is a stone that I'll probably never sharpen with. Gifted from a great friend of mine. Stories of this stone trades back all the way to warring states period also known as the Sengoku Period in Japan, which is like 1500 ish. Believed that this stone is from one of the students of Muramasa Sengo named Fujiwara Masazane ( i loved this story he told me but it is indeed very hard to believe, you guys tell me) That stone then get passed on generation to generation to the one I'm holding in my hands. Due to specific sharpening style of katana, the stone is now an oval shape on each side which kinda does tell it has been used for a very long time. I believe it is a Ohira shikiutigumori suita with characteristics of purple renge and karasu. (btw if you guys ever want top top top quality Jnat and happens to speak Japanese, go to knife shops, take some tours, talk a lot, buy some knives and ask them out for a drink, some of these knife forgeries will even give you stones like this for free or very good offer).

Lastly, wanna take a guess how much one of these would cost you? ( If you make within 50 USD range one I'll find a way to ship you some stones, taking first 10 guesses )
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I've got a few like this also. They can have their uses for kitchen knives also, I use mine fairly extensively for tricky full convex work when dealing with stuff like non linear taper, etc. Also with single bevels that have funky convexity or shinogi, particularly at the tip, that I don't want to spend hours dealing with on 200 grit stone. Cool stones and sometimes can be had relatively cheaply.
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I'd expect something of that size and quality to retail for $400-600, if it was flat easily double that. US but I wouldn't be surprised if you picked it up for $150 or so. Cool stone that I'd like to have just for the novelty haha

I concur with others that the saw marks indicate it's a newer cut stone. Here's a few with hand scraped sides.
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NSD: Big Beautiful Belgian BBW.

My first natural stone. King 300 for reference.

Really enjoyed my first session. I love this stone. Feedback was excellent. The feeling of this stone was amazing. Nothing like I expected having read so many reviews. I must admit I didn't expect too much but I was blown away. Produced a fantastic edge too. Can't wait to try it again.

I fear I might have made an expensive mistake diving into the natural rabbit hole.
 

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Chasingsharpness said:
NSD: Big Beautiful Belgian BBW.

My first natural stone. King 300 for reference.
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My brain could not process that first photo. Thoughts such as, "wow, I didn't know King made such small stones!", and "what's that rectangular cutting board in the center for?" sprung up in my conciusness for a solid minute. That is proper silly!

Here is my recreation for contrast.
 

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