Unfortunately I cannot edit the old thread but this one needs to go so let’s make a new one:
I bought this stone from Shinichi Watanabe not very long ago. Shinichi said he thinks it’s a specimen of exceptionally fine Natsuya and from my experience with these rocks (I had four up to now including this one) this might well be true.
This is a peculiar stone as it feels hard, dense and smooth although it’s supposed to be soft. You will want to raise some slurry on it before you start, else it won’t do a lot for polishing but can still be used for refining an edge or a quick touch up. With slurry it leaves a very pleasing even kasumi finish with nice contrast and a slightly dulled semi mirror core steel. If you work the slurry long enough on a well prepared blade you can even get a near mirror finish on the hard steel. Edges are nice and toothy and suitable for a lot of different tasks.
The bottom is a little uneven, but I lapped the center portion flat and now it sits very stable in use. The stone is pretty big measuring 210x75x30, it’s sealed on all sides and bottom.
I‘m only selling it because it doesn’t see much use as I tend to grab one of my various Suita over anything else in my collection and an unused stone is kind of a sad thing.
The stone has one tiny flaw that should not be a big problem though, more on that with the pictures...
I payed 25000¥ (around 200€) plus shipping for it about half a year ago. Considering that it’s not a perfect stone I am looking for 170€ (~190$) including shipping in Europe and 205$ shipped internationally, but I‘m also open for reasonable offers.
If you have any questions or for more pictures feel free to drop me a line.
As promised now for the flaw:
That chip in the stone surface contains some kind of skin. The material there is softer than the rest of the stone so this is not a problem. Unfortunately that material extends a bit into the side of the stone in form of a very fine line. I sealed that area with lots of lacquer, so no water can get into the stone, so this should be fine too.
I bought this stone from Shinichi Watanabe not very long ago. Shinichi said he thinks it’s a specimen of exceptionally fine Natsuya and from my experience with these rocks (I had four up to now including this one) this might well be true.
This is a peculiar stone as it feels hard, dense and smooth although it’s supposed to be soft. You will want to raise some slurry on it before you start, else it won’t do a lot for polishing but can still be used for refining an edge or a quick touch up. With slurry it leaves a very pleasing even kasumi finish with nice contrast and a slightly dulled semi mirror core steel. If you work the slurry long enough on a well prepared blade you can even get a near mirror finish on the hard steel. Edges are nice and toothy and suitable for a lot of different tasks.
The bottom is a little uneven, but I lapped the center portion flat and now it sits very stable in use. The stone is pretty big measuring 210x75x30, it’s sealed on all sides and bottom.
I‘m only selling it because it doesn’t see much use as I tend to grab one of my various Suita over anything else in my collection and an unused stone is kind of a sad thing.
The stone has one tiny flaw that should not be a big problem though, more on that with the pictures...
I payed 25000¥ (around 200€) plus shipping for it about half a year ago. Considering that it’s not a perfect stone I am looking for 170€ (~190$) including shipping in Europe and 205$ shipped internationally, but I‘m also open for reasonable offers.
If you have any questions or for more pictures feel free to drop me a line.
As promised now for the flaw:
That chip in the stone surface contains some kind of skin. The material there is softer than the rest of the stone so this is not a problem. Unfortunately that material extends a bit into the side of the stone in form of a very fine line. I sealed that area with lots of lacquer, so no water can get into the stone, so this should be fine too.
Last edited: