SOLD Some Stones for Sales 2023

[eggistentialist]

Hey, I have got some more stones put on sales as I am planning to have another huge purchase from the wholesaler in the coming months.

The stones will be list from middle grit (cheap) to finishing (expensive), and they will be describe with in-depth information as usual, and so I beg for your patient.

For shipping rate and options, or any other questions, please feel free to pm me. Thank!

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Iyoto: $120 USD (For Both) -SOLD-

Dimension: 175x67x18 / 190x63x48

Weight: 500g / 1295g

The iyoto can roughly classify into five types: the real star (本星), maishi (間石), red star (赤星), nashiji (梨地), and stripe (木地). With the real star being the highest class among them (finest, purest, and medium hard). And unlike the stripe iyoto, which has a lot of impurities (sand) and inconsistent particles, the first two types have a more refined and consistent composition. These two iyoto I listed are the first type (real star). Both are handy stones, with all sides sealed with black cashew by me. And the large one has preserved the saw mark on all sides.

In terms of tactile feeling, the stone is around 4, and the gripping power is acceptable. In other words, the stone surface needs to be occasionally “refresh” by atoma to maintain its high cutting power. If not, you may need to adjust your hand pressure and stroke, as well as do some water management (add only a little water) to keep the slurry concentrated and thus retain its sharpening power.

In terms of performance, the stone performs differently with and without a slurry. If you sharpen it without slurry, then it allows you to erase most of the scratches from the coarse stone, but at the same time leaves some visible scratches on the blade, and it takes time to make the finish consistent. On the other hand, if you sharpen it with slurry, the process would be much more user-friendly, and the result would be more refined and consistent. The cosmetic finish is a typical black-and-white contrast, with the soft iron polished to a soft grey, and steel to matte white.Unsurprisingly, the edge that iyoto gives is pretty toothy and may need some extra work on other middle grit stones if you want a more refined edge. But if you just want a quick finish up from the coarse stone, then iyoto with atoma raised slurry will give you a decent practical edge.

Overall, the scratch pattern is middle-coarse, and it is visible throughout the entire blade, which is a good thing as you don’t want the stone to hide anything from you and only reveal them to you in the finishing stage. Anyway, it is a practical and economical stone. And I believe the only bad thing about this stone IN GENERAL is that you may need to be cautious about buying it from an unknown source, as most of them are at very poor quality. Or else, the cost-performance ratio for this stone is great.

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Natsuya (Orange): $250 USD -SOLD-

Dimension: 210x78x63

Weight: 2300g

*Label included

This is a beautiful Natsuya with black renge shatter all over the surfaces and having a unified deep orange color. The stone is very pure and clean, without any cracks, lines, or missing corners. And all surfaces have been sealed with cashew (5 times) by me. Natsuya is known to have a variety of colors (white, beige, purplish grey, orange) and patterns (dots, stripes, renge), and among them, orange color and black renge pattern are told to be the indicator of the highest quality (as told by my Kyoto wholesaler friend).

That being said, this Natsuya is a fine and hard stone, somewhere around 4. Even though it produces a sandy SOUND when sharpening, you do not FEEL that coarseness when you sharpen the knife upon it. And since it is a hard stone, it does not generate self-slurry like crazy but still provides a very strong cutting power. As a result, the gripping power is moderate and solid, and the result it gives you is a promising one, with all previous scratches removed and leaves you with a uniform matte white finish on the cladding and a matte dark grey on the steel.

Raising a slurry in this case is completely optional. Since the cosmetic result it gives is nearly identical in both cases. And since it is a middle-hard stone, the slurry will not develop into sticky mud even if you raised it using atoma, and so if you want to have a “smoother” tactile experience, then I will recommend raising a slurry before sharpening. Last but not least, the edge it gives you is a solid working edge, with tiny teeth that can easily polish into a very fine edge using finishing stone in under a few strokes.

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Please see comment section for more~​

 

[eggistentialist]

Nakayama Mitsu Asagi: $650 USD -SOLD-

Dimension: 225x77x45

Weight: 1845g

Original Condition:

This Nakayama mitsu-asagi is a long-size (尺長)bench stone with a stamp on the side. Just a little side note about this stone. In fact, it is pretty common nowadays to see a Nakayama Asagi listed in an auction, where it also has the very identical logo stamped on the stone (though they are stamped with black ink). However, after a short conversation with the wholesaler (who is the current miner of Nakayama), he told me the Nakayama stones that are listed on auction are essentially sold by his colleague. For this reason, there is a major quality distinction between what is being listed on the auction vs stock that is sold in the storefront. Hence, since this stone was directly purchased from the wholesaler’s warehouse, it was stamped with the purple ink logo, which essentially distinguishes it from the auction/internet stone stocks that are stamped with black ink. For this reason, I have high confidence in assuring the quality and authenticity of this stone.
Back to the topic, this is a pure Nakayama mitsu asagi with no crack and streak. It has hybrid sawing marks (hand and machine) left on four sides and a hand chisel mark on the back. And you may notice there is a “streak-like” pattern going through the middle of the stone, and it is certainly not the case. Instead, it is a suminagashi (墨流し) pattern that will not do anything harmful to the stone but only add a slight cosmetic feature to the stone’s appearance.

In terms of performance, this stone is a beast, where it has an exceptional balancing characteristic on all hardness, fineness, and tactile feeling.

Objectively speaking, this Mitsu asagi is a hard and fine stone (around 5), for it produces a very crispy and high-pitched sound when you are knocking it when a metal spoon. However, when I am sharpening it with a kiridashi or Kanna plane, I did not get that typical “glass-like” tactile experience that I usually encountered when using Nakayama. Instead, the stone gives me a fairly moderate response (around 4-4.5) where I can easily make a long sharpening stroke without experiencing any bumpy or glassy feeling. For this reason, I don’t need to pay much attention to adjusting hand pressure to maintain a reasonable grippy feeling. And of course, you still need to pay attention to the water, where you can’t add a bunch of water to it. But again, this stone doesn’t require you to have strict water management to generate and maintain self-slurry, which essentially makes it a very user-friendly stone.

Secondly, this Mitsu asagi is a fast-cutting stone that can produce a minimal amount of self-slurry but at the same time maintain an extremely high cutting power throughout the entire sharpening session. This power is best demonstrated when I am sharpening it with the kanna plane, where the stone is able to constantly cut the blade even I had finished sharpening the plane on uchigumori. But still, the stone is able to leave the blade with a clean and scratch-free finish on both cladding and iron afterward. Specifically, the stone leaves a (semi-mirror) white foggy finish on the cladding, and a dark blue mirror finish (with a thin layer of whitish fog) on the iron.

That being said, I would say it is optional whether you want to raise a slurry using atoma or not. Personally, I don’t think it is necessary. Since the stone itself already possesses a very high cutting power and grip power, and so raising a slurry would only add a layer of “stickiness” (overly gripped) to the overall sharpening experience which I don’t really appreciate. And in terms of edge condition, I don’t think it is necessary to put too many words on it. It is an asagi after all, and so the edge is in top-notch quality without any surprise.

Overall, this is a very promising stone with a very easy-going character, for it can provide you with very solid cosmetic finishes, edge condition, as well as a satisfying sharpening experience.​

 

[eggistentialist]

Mozen (Green): $280 USD -SOLD-

Dimension: 220x85x80

Weight: 3325g

*Box and Label NOT included (I left them in Hong Kong...sorry)

Original Condition

The first stone is a huge and rare green monzen. Usually, monzen is commonly known for their extremely soft and coarse character. And since monzen are usually red in color, that’s why people called them aka-monzen. However, this stone is an exception, in which it has an aoto-like green color with a very consistent sharpening surface. There is no streak nor crack running across the stone (just a very tiny line located on top of the stone that don’t affect sharpening), and so the overall sharpening experience is smooth and enjoyable. Anyway, this is the original condition of the stone, with the original stamp and box that indicates the authenticity of the stone. Unfortunately, I had left the box in Hong Kong, and so the stone will be sold without the box. Even though this green monzen is not as fragile compared with the aka-monzen, but I still sealed it with five-coats of cashew due to its rarity.

In term of hardness, this stone is somewhere around 3.5. It has the capability to generates self-slurry within a few strokes without needing to use atoma. And the thickness of the slurry can also maintain in a moderate (creamy) manner, where it will not build up into mud-like paste and dry up in a second. Therefore, the tactile feeling of this stone is very similar with aoto, where the oily feeling of the slurry can provides a very comfortable sharpening experience. And since the stone is not overly soft, and so you don’t need to sharpen it under running water but only need to add a few drops of water when you think it is necessary. In terms of finishes, the effect is pretty much the same with or without raised slurry, and so I don’t think you need to ever use atoma to raise slurry. Since this is stone is a middle-grit, and so it leaves both soft cladding and iron with a consistent yet shallow scratch pattern that can be immediately erase by nagura stone. And I believe the biggest characteristic of this stone is on its fastness, in which it can quickly erase scratches from the coarse stone and raise a blur under a minute of sharpening. And since it is a firm stone, it does not dish very much, which makes a very practical and durable stone.​

 

[eggistentialist]

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The End, thank you for bearing with me till the end !!

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[Nagakin]

Phenomenal seller, I have bought several stones in the past. Please buy with confidence

 

[eggistentialist]

Nakayama Mitsu Asagi
-SOLD-

 

[eggistentialist]

Natsuya
-ON HOLD-

 

[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

Iyoto
-ON HOLD-

 

[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

Green Monzen
-SOLD-

 

[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

Iyoto
-SOLD-

 

[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

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[eggistentialist]

Natsuya
-SOLD-