Rock For Sale

Bear with me, this is a mouthful.

Honyama Renge Uchigumori Koppa Toishi. There is also some phantom Karasu present. Without the Japanese, this is a polishing grade, natural water stone. The red and orange speckles are considered to be a sign of an excellent polishing stone. I may be mistaken, but that is a characteristic of Uchigumori stones from the Ohira mine.

As per usual, I’ve put the stone to use so that I can tell you more about it. If you’re polishing swords, this is an example of the last stone you’ll use prior to moving on to using hazuya and jizuya. It’s near-mirror polish and splendidly smooth to use. (It will produce a reflective scratch pattern, but not the ultra smooth perfect mirror surface that you’d expect on chrome.) However, because it is a Koppa stone (unfinished sides) you wouldn’t want to use it for swords.

Kitchen knives, razors, and carpentry tools are where this one would excel.

The photos are for scale. The pad is a 9 inch wide pad, so the stone is somewhat over 9 inches long, and well over 3 inches at the widest. Pardon my dirty index finger in the width photo.

Top view

Width approx. 0.5 in. to .625 in.

Backside

Price: $240 No longer being offered for sale.

The new stones are here.

I hate it when my eloquence is reduced to things like “Dude! Sweet!”

That’s about all I can say. I really like the Aoto and the Takashima that I got for myself. My supplier wasn’t kidding when he said that the Taka was the sort of stone that only someone with experience should use. It’s soft, smooth, but not as fiercely abrasive as Shobu Sugoro or Uchigumori.

I also acquired four other stones to “tail gate” at the hammer-in that I’m going to next month. One is an Aoto, and it is as spiffy as the one I’m keeping, the other three are Special. They’re easily the most expensive stones I’ve bought or used. Now I know why.

They’re Uchigumori, but they’re similar suita and graduated in hardness. Stone one is softer. Stone two is medium. Stone three is harder. They show some karasu and renge. Using them one after the other yields something truly beautiful, and sharp.

I’m having a crisis of conscience about selling them. That’s when you know you’ve purchased well.

This is not good.

A little research has appeared under my nose, along with one supporting personal bad experience. My toishi supplier may be trying to cheat people.

I have learned the following thing about Japanese business practices. Once a price is agreed upon, paid, and the item delivered, it is UNETHICAL of a business person to ask for more money. In my case, my supplier’s shopping cart system undercharged me for shipping. He sent the stones anyway, and came to me looking for the balance of the undercharge.

At this point, things just became unethical. There is consumer protection for things like this. I could, and my Research Partner in Japan may well, report my Toishiya-san to the Government.

So, if you are ordering things from Japan and an issue comes up after you’ve paid, there may be reason to remind your vendor of “The Bye-bye Clause” in Japan’s Consumer Protection.

I’ll be looking for alternate stone resources in the near future.

And then my eyes refused to process.

I found a retailer who sells Koma-Nagura and Chu-Nagura. Of course, they’re in Japan and don’t speak English. Fair enough, since I can only swear, count to 100, order food, ask where the “Honorable hand washing place” is, and thank people in Japanese.

I can read prices. Mostly because they’re displayed in English, but bear with me.

A simple Meijiro Nagura, about 6.5 inches long, by 1.25, by 1.625 is just over $90. That is NOT a Koma. That’s a grade below.

My eyes refuse to process the cost of Koma and Chu at the sizes that would be useful for large blade or sword polishing. I nearly got a cramp in my soul. Synthetic stones for these two may be a reasonable approach to the issue.

Ow.

Alright, new information on Hazuya and Jizuya

They’re used lengthwise. A bladesmith in France (Merci, mon ami!) was kind enough to answer my question on Don Fogg’s Bladesmiths Forum. By the way, I can’t recommend this forum enough if you’re interested in the craft. Wonderful people, all kinds of work from “my first knife” all the way into “I can’t afford that without a second mortgage”.

Next step, go forge some blades to practice on. I wish that weren’t the challenge that it is, but there ya go.

Shobu Sugoro Kiita

See this post: http://3ravensmetalcraft.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/shobu-sugoro-kiita-koppa/

This toishi is no longer for sale as a bench stone.

What we have here is a Shobu Sugoro Kiita (yellow stone) from the Aisa stratum. It is a kumori finish stone, rather than an uchigumori. That basically means that it is a step below final polishing. It will give a lovely, regular, slightly smoky, bright polish that shows faint scratch pattern.

This toishi has some issues. The areas on the face of the stone that I circled contain small pockets of glassy silica. If you were to tilt the stone back and forth, you’d see them very clearly. Because of this, there are significant considerations about how this one should be used.

You could, with a carbide saw, section this toishi into two good-sized razor stones and have material left over to use for creating kiita to kiita slurry, or to fracture down into kumori finger stones for detail work. If you were to make razor stones out of the prime areas, I would have no compunction about telling you to use them for sword polishing.

However, if you keep it intact, do not use it for that purpose. Instead, use it to sharpen knives. That is one area where the silica deposits will not impair function or performance.

I will say this, I have not seen a toishi that started cutting steel this quickly outside of the Iyoto that I’ve bought. It absolutely cuts more quickly than the Takashima Karasu, Shobudani Aisa, Green Shobu Sugoro, Narutaki and Ohira Uchigumori that I own. For that reason alone, I am tempted to keep it for myself. However, I am also aware that I need more toishi like I need a hole in my head.

How about this? I’ll offer it for sale until Sunday 11/15, and if no one is interested, I’ll keep it. Sound fair? Alright.

$80 + shipping. Paypal. threeravensringo@gmail.com

Uchigumori and Narutaki koppa

No longer for sale.

 

These two photos are examples of the raw material that are used to make hazuya (gray Uchigumori) and jizuya (khaki Narutaki) finger stones for polishing Japanese blades. I am offering it for sale in quantities of 10 grams for $5, plus shipping. (Multiples of 10g are simple math. For example, you want 100g of Uchi, that’s $50 plus shipping.) My present stock for sale is +/- 500 grams of each koppa. My contact address is threeravensringo@gmail.com. I accept Paypal exclusively.

 

Examples of Uchigumori koppa

 

 

Examples of Narutaki koppa

 

Another one coming soon

I just bit a bullet and ordered another stone. It will either be the first of the “stock” I’m trying to build, or I’ll be offering it for sale.

It is a Kiita Honyama. It probably comes from the Nakayama mine, but I’m waiting for my supplier to confirm that. If that’s the case, and it is a Nakayama Kiita, then I will want to try it out a good bit before it goes anywhere.

The Kiita (Yellow) Nakayama come from an 800 year old mine. Perfect examples of this kind of stone can go for the price of a new car. I shit you not. My supplier has one available right now and I look at it with lust in my heart every so often.

I often joke with my wife that if someone ever approached me for a stone of that pedigree that I’d have to lay down some legal paperwork first. I need 50% of the retail price up front. It is non refundable. I will go to Kyoto myself, pick up the stone, and then deliver it to the client in person. I will, at the client’s preference, also have a bottle of Moet & Chandon White Star in my other hand when I arrive.

Long story short, the Kiita is one of the most prized stones there is. I think I’ve communicated that well here.

Needless to say, this particular Kiita is not “perfect”. It is damned fine, but not perfect. The color is a little off, it has a section that has split off, and a significant fissure on one end. To an end user, that doesn’t mean a whole lot in terms of utility, because all you have to do is avoid those two sections. Since the measurements of this stone are close to 8 inches long, by 3 inches wide, by 1 inch thick, that gives someone a lot of rock to work with.

For that matter, anyone with a stone saw could cut the stone down into two “razor stone” size pieces and still get amazing amounts of use out of it. Trust me, I’ve been thinking about doing that very thing. Keep one for myself and sell the other one…TEMPTATION! It burns!

A stone in this condition would cost around $120. Were it perfect? Probably well over $300.

Once it arrives, there will be photos.

NEWS: Ok. It isn’t a Nakayama. It’s a Shobu Sugoro Aisa. That’s really interesting, actually. I’ve got a kumori Shobu now, and it is a really wonderful stone. Hmmm.

Strike that! Shobu stones ARE from the same mountain as Nakayamas are. Nakayama refers to the quarry. The mountain’s nickname is Shobudani. INTERESTING!

The trouble with foreign languages

I bought a stone for my own collection. It looked really interesting, and it was a price that I was willing to pay for the grade of polishing that it was rated for.

As with a lot of the material I’m purchasing, the descriptions are vague, and in this case, there was no particular mine mentioned. I did, like I have in the past, extra research to learn more about what I bought.

I found a photo of a stone with an appearance that is as close to identical as two rocks from the same mine can be. That’s good enough for me in this case, because natural toishi are often very distinct between one mine and another…even between opposite sides of a mountain. The stone in the photo was identified as a Takashima.

Well. I had wanted a Takashima for my collection. I was just surprised to already have it! You can bet that I won’t be chopping off parts to make finger stones now.

Coming soon…

My supplier and I didn’t quite connect on my large cultural question. However, he did give me the information I wanted on getting higher quality material for finger stones. So, coming soon…probably a month or more from now… will be serious uchigumori and narutaki koppa.

I’m ordering about twice what I expect to ever use, and will be offering the remaining material for sale either here, or on a friend’s new knife-oriented auction site.