---I will move this post into the comment section inside the first post, but it may take a days or so to complete.---
I am sorry for causing any inconvenient...
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Part 2: Stone For Sale (Continue)
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2: Black Saeki (228x65x70) 2600g $500 *
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_R45hpbNHun0ukh4_a4cHl4XAm0Cd1X4?usp=sharing
Black Saeki, a highly sough-after stone by many collector, is a "pre-middle-grid" stone mined in Kyoto, and have been told to have a very similar origin with aoto and monzen-to. This stone fits in between rough and middle-grid stone, allowing you to clean up the deep scratch pattern made by rough synthetic/natural stone. Usually, saeki have four color variations - red, yellow, green, and black (Japanese called it brown). Among them, the black saeki located at the deepest of the mountain, with the highest fineness level and rarest stone to find, especially the one that are stamped by Tanaka toishi. As descripted by Maxim from JNS, the grid size for saeki is very wide, where what people used to get is soft and coarse one, which is not a good sign because it cannot help you to efficiency erase deep scratches.
The black saeki that I have is an old stock mined by Tanaka san, and it has a hand-written word 昔 (old) wrote on the box, so I believe this stone is properly mined by Tanaka san's grandfather. In fact, when I visited Kyoto last time, I also purchased another two old stones (amakusa and binsui) from him and both of them have the word 昔 stamped on the box. And Tanaka san told me the word means old stock, so I think it helps clarify the authenticity for this saeki. Another way to prove it is an old stock is the saw mark left on both side of the stone. Interestingly enough, the saw mark left on the stone seems like a mix between machine and hand, and so I am very curious what is happening when old Tanaka san is cutting this stone.
Anyway, after I have received the stone, I used cashew to lacquer four sides 5 times to prevent it from getting any unnecessary crack (even though I really love to use it raw...). In terms of pureness, there is no streak or toxic line in this stone. But still, there is two tidy cracks on the very side of the surface. They don't affect sharpening experience but it is something worth notice. But honestly, it is very tough to get a stone that is perfect in all aspects. If that is the case, then the price will go up accordingly.
So, moving on to actual sharpening experience, this saeki is medium-hard, and unlike my soft hyotan numata, which is pretty coarse but have a rather smooth surface, this saeki feel a bit sandy in terms of tactile feeling. But when it comes to actual sharpening, you will surprise that the grid size of this stone is not really that coarse than you imagine when touching it by hand (tactile feeling = 800-1000 grid; finishing on blade = 1500-2500 grid). But thank to the sandy surface, it gives me a very enjoyable moment when sharpening with it. It just like the stone that preserves the solid and firm bite given by rough stones (of course not as aggressive as they do), but at the same time give you a result of middle-grid stone. As you can see in the photo, the finishing creates a very uniform scratch pattern on both cladding and steel, creating a humble kasumi finish, and leaving tidy and shallow scratches that can be easily clean up by aoto or nagura in the later progression. To further explain the abstract grip feeling for this saeki, we can compare it with the soft numata again. Even though the surface of numata is smooth, when you sharpen with it, you will realize your knife is grip hard by the stone, and the tension between them is strong and the sound is scratchy as well. However, the saeki behaves not as aggressive as the soft numata do, but instead give you a balancing bite while allowing you blade to move smoothly along the stone surface. Therefore, the sharpening sound is not scratchy but moderate, but still telling you it is cutting the steel.
In terms of slurry management, you can easily create slurry without needing to use diamond plate (I guess you cannot find a tomo nagura for black saeki. If you do, please send a pm to me). And you don't need pay attention on pressure as well, because either way the stone will generate slurry. But since it is not a hard stone, it does absorb water in moderate amount, and so you just need to add some water (more than few drops is okay) to keep the slurry moist, if not it will dry out very soon like the akapin.
Another thing worth notice is the change in thickness of the slurry through sharpening and the role of water. As you can see in the video, the initially slurry that I raised using diamond plate tends to be a little bit thin in thickness. But after the water dry out during the sharpening session and more slurry is coming out from the stone, the slurry becomes pretty thick at the end of the video, it becomes a creamy paste. For this reason, I think it is important to add water during the sharpening session to maintain the thickness of the slurry at the same rate. In other words, if you want to erase scratch as efficient as possible, then you may need to sharpen it without slurry (or keep the slurry at very thin texture), that way you can ensure the stone's particle size is always large enough to erase the previous scratch pattern. On the other hand, if you would like to use saeki as your finishing stone, then it would be fine to keep the slurry from accumulating and becoming very thick. Because that way, the particle will break down into finer size and would help you refine your edge and enhance the cosmetic finish of your blade. In terms of edge condition, saeki would definitely leave a pretty aggressive edge on your blade. And so if you are handling heavy duty work everyday and want a quick refreshment on your blade, then I think saeki is the one that can fulfil your need. You can repair the blade on rough stone and finishing up quick with the saeki. But since the price for black saeki is pretty high, and I believe there are more options that can substitute it (e.g. natsuya, ikarashi, aizu). And so I believe this stone is more suitable for collector and people who really love to collect old and rare stuff (like me).
(Finish without slurry)
(Finish with slurry)
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To be continue...
I am sorry for causing any inconvenient...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: Stone For Sale (Continue)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2: Black Saeki (228x65x70) 2600g $500 *
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_R45hpbNHun0ukh4_a4cHl4XAm0Cd1X4?usp=sharing
Black Saeki, a highly sough-after stone by many collector, is a "pre-middle-grid" stone mined in Kyoto, and have been told to have a very similar origin with aoto and monzen-to. This stone fits in between rough and middle-grid stone, allowing you to clean up the deep scratch pattern made by rough synthetic/natural stone. Usually, saeki have four color variations - red, yellow, green, and black (Japanese called it brown). Among them, the black saeki located at the deepest of the mountain, with the highest fineness level and rarest stone to find, especially the one that are stamped by Tanaka toishi. As descripted by Maxim from JNS, the grid size for saeki is very wide, where what people used to get is soft and coarse one, which is not a good sign because it cannot help you to efficiency erase deep scratches.
The black saeki that I have is an old stock mined by Tanaka san, and it has a hand-written word 昔 (old) wrote on the box, so I believe this stone is properly mined by Tanaka san's grandfather. In fact, when I visited Kyoto last time, I also purchased another two old stones (amakusa and binsui) from him and both of them have the word 昔 stamped on the box. And Tanaka san told me the word means old stock, so I think it helps clarify the authenticity for this saeki. Another way to prove it is an old stock is the saw mark left on both side of the stone. Interestingly enough, the saw mark left on the stone seems like a mix between machine and hand, and so I am very curious what is happening when old Tanaka san is cutting this stone.
Anyway, after I have received the stone, I used cashew to lacquer four sides 5 times to prevent it from getting any unnecessary crack (even though I really love to use it raw...). In terms of pureness, there is no streak or toxic line in this stone. But still, there is two tidy cracks on the very side of the surface. They don't affect sharpening experience but it is something worth notice. But honestly, it is very tough to get a stone that is perfect in all aspects. If that is the case, then the price will go up accordingly.
So, moving on to actual sharpening experience, this saeki is medium-hard, and unlike my soft hyotan numata, which is pretty coarse but have a rather smooth surface, this saeki feel a bit sandy in terms of tactile feeling. But when it comes to actual sharpening, you will surprise that the grid size of this stone is not really that coarse than you imagine when touching it by hand (tactile feeling = 800-1000 grid; finishing on blade = 1500-2500 grid). But thank to the sandy surface, it gives me a very enjoyable moment when sharpening with it. It just like the stone that preserves the solid and firm bite given by rough stones (of course not as aggressive as they do), but at the same time give you a result of middle-grid stone. As you can see in the photo, the finishing creates a very uniform scratch pattern on both cladding and steel, creating a humble kasumi finish, and leaving tidy and shallow scratches that can be easily clean up by aoto or nagura in the later progression. To further explain the abstract grip feeling for this saeki, we can compare it with the soft numata again. Even though the surface of numata is smooth, when you sharpen with it, you will realize your knife is grip hard by the stone, and the tension between them is strong and the sound is scratchy as well. However, the saeki behaves not as aggressive as the soft numata do, but instead give you a balancing bite while allowing you blade to move smoothly along the stone surface. Therefore, the sharpening sound is not scratchy but moderate, but still telling you it is cutting the steel.
In terms of slurry management, you can easily create slurry without needing to use diamond plate (I guess you cannot find a tomo nagura for black saeki. If you do, please send a pm to me). And you don't need pay attention on pressure as well, because either way the stone will generate slurry. But since it is not a hard stone, it does absorb water in moderate amount, and so you just need to add some water (more than few drops is okay) to keep the slurry moist, if not it will dry out very soon like the akapin.
Another thing worth notice is the change in thickness of the slurry through sharpening and the role of water. As you can see in the video, the initially slurry that I raised using diamond plate tends to be a little bit thin in thickness. But after the water dry out during the sharpening session and more slurry is coming out from the stone, the slurry becomes pretty thick at the end of the video, it becomes a creamy paste. For this reason, I think it is important to add water during the sharpening session to maintain the thickness of the slurry at the same rate. In other words, if you want to erase scratch as efficient as possible, then you may need to sharpen it without slurry (or keep the slurry at very thin texture), that way you can ensure the stone's particle size is always large enough to erase the previous scratch pattern. On the other hand, if you would like to use saeki as your finishing stone, then it would be fine to keep the slurry from accumulating and becoming very thick. Because that way, the particle will break down into finer size and would help you refine your edge and enhance the cosmetic finish of your blade. In terms of edge condition, saeki would definitely leave a pretty aggressive edge on your blade. And so if you are handling heavy duty work everyday and want a quick refreshment on your blade, then I think saeki is the one that can fulfil your need. You can repair the blade on rough stone and finishing up quick with the saeki. But since the price for black saeki is pretty high, and I believe there are more options that can substitute it (e.g. natsuya, ikarashi, aizu). And so I believe this stone is more suitable for collector and people who really love to collect old and rare stuff (like me).
(Finish without slurry)
(Finish with slurry)
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To be continue...
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