So……. How is it?
I’m in Japan and I’ve been contemplating pulling the trigger on some form of a Hatahoshi. I’ve done pretty well getting real good deals on rocks off Yahoo Auctions. I have one vintage Maruka that is pretty nice and got it for a great price. There is a massive step up in price for a Hatahoshi and I keep wondering if that price gap is really worth it…???
Is your stone better for knives or straight razors?
I have 3 fine stones that are razor finishers, and one that is a better knife finisher.
Personally from my opinion, overrated af. From my experience with these, it is very hard to find one with the right price for it and real. Firstly there are lots of fakes out there even on yahoo and such, I've purchase more than 10 Hatahoshi and three of them turn out to be fake ( sadly cause you know, shopping online is a hard process have to test them out your self). Secondly the rest that I owned, they might not be as good as you think it would be, the stamp is one reason for it cause unless you flatten it and throughly test the stone out which also gets rid of the stamp you couldn't know what is the sharpening experience of it which a lot of seller would not do. But undeniably the real ones on average the performance is incredible, such great katsumi polish finishes for a genuinely hard rock.
I don't usually sharpen razors but I do use razors for testing and I know which stones are good for razors. Undoubtedly these are probably some of the best stones you could find for razors due to it's hardness and smooth feel. And when talking about sharpening knives it really depends on each one, some of them have better large surface acceptance which means no scratch and great polish, some have great polish but just leaves some slight scratches on the face.
Reasons not to buy it:
seller barely test these out for keeping the stamp
fake stones
Overwhelming price
A lot of other great options at the same price range ( im talking around +1500USD)
Reasons to buy it:
Collector's piece
Great performance ( have to have video proof, I got scammed too many times)
The look and the cool antique boxes I guess
tennentoishi.com
