This is a small Kiita koppa (irregular piece). I picked it up from Bo-Ouku hones in Kyoto, near Saga-Arashiyama station. The size and shape is a wee bit awkward to use, but it's buttery smooth, and the edges are outstanding.
At Bo-oku, I also picked up this Narutaki Mukaida plate. Lapping the stone, unfortunately, revealed a scattering of su--these small pits are the remains of gas bubbles left in the stone when it formed oh so long ago. I've used it to hone some Kamisori, and it worked fine, but the risks of using a su-filled stone are real--the slurry can get trapped in the holes, and come out when you don't want it to...so this one will be used carefully.
These two benchstones came from Tanaka hones, near Nishi-Honganji temple. The one on the left is a Shoubudani, and the right hand hone is an Okudo. They are both from the gousa seam, which produces karasu stones, and is considered the best for Kamisori from all the awasedo mines.
I haven't honed on the shoubudani except at the shop, using a broken plane blade (hence the scratches), but the okudo is a good, hard stone, and fine as all get out. It's slow, but leaves a beautiful edge.
As you can see, there is some lighter coloration in the Okudo, but the Shoubudani is a mostly uniform dark grey, with a few tiny pinkish and orangish spots.
These two in the middle are SLURRY STONES. Yeah. Big ones. The top is a Nittori stone (softer) and the bottom is unknown, but harder.
It's such fun investigating these stones, and learning their little idiosyncracies...but I still find that I prefer the stones I got from my barber.
2 comments:
Most drool worthy :) So far my 2 stones, green Ohira and a blue Asagi (nakayama), are my only stones and I'm still playing with them. They seem to do well back to back but I'm still fumbling about with them.
I look forward to all your posting on these fascinating stones :)
A green Oohira? Green?!
I need pics, mate...that sounds gorgeous.
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