Turns out, I've been shooting for the moon when my sights should have been a little lower.
I took another razor to Kawaguchi-sensei for appraisal. It's been a while; my razors have all been shaving wonderfully, and I can't bring myself to dull a good shaver. But luckily (?) my smaller tamahagane straight was starting to pull a bit so I took it to the big nakayama kiita that he gave me back in the day.
So I decided to try out my new koma nagura, too. Worked up a nice slurry and went to work... The slurry was nice and fast, turning grey in a few seconds. I worked the bevel until it was nice and cloudy, then moved up to tomonagura slurry. Four refreshes, and the bevel looked fully even to me. So I was confident--not 100%, but up there.
And at the barbershop, surrounded by old men, nudie mags and fishing gear, I relaxed and waited my turn. There's something so nice about Kawaguchi's barbershop...just so old fashioned, calm and non-modern (his chair doesn't even rotate!). Off the grid, you know. When he finished trimming up the guy before me, i settled into the chair and he took the razor. I wasn't nervous, but did keep glancing over to him...I was half waiting for he first real approval of my honing career. I was, of course, a little disappointed when he said "Good. Not 100. 97, maybe."
Ah well, another near miss. Then he said "four more 97s, and you'll be perfect."
Wait, what?
"4 more 97s? Not 100?"
"Not 100! 100 is perfect. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. No one's perfect. 97 is good enough."
Silly me. I was trying for perfect...for 100 out of 100. But he's right, of course. I'm not perfect, and good enough is good enough for me.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
New Maruo Stones
I just got a nice package from Western Kyoto Prefecture...wanna see what's inside?
This is actually my second order from Tsuchihashi-san, the 3rd generation owner of Totoriya and miner in the Oouchi district of Kyoto. His stones are fresh honed, from the Honkuchi Naori AND the Aishi Naori. What that means is, there are a LOT of stones, and you have a wide range of options when you go to buy. The stones are not as hard as the Eastern Stones (Nakayama, Shoubudani, etc.) but very fine, and they are beautiful.
The Yellow stone is an Ippon Matsu (lone pine--the mine name) Kiita (yellow board) Nashiji (pearskin) hone. It's got a lovely pale yellow color, and I frankly don't care how well it hones--it's just gorgeous. The smaller hone is a Maruo-yama Kiiro (yellow colored) Suita. It's not VERY yellow...but hey, what do I know?
As you can see, the Yellow Suita is not very big, but it's well within barber hone size, and so fine for razor use. And it's got a lovely yellow tint in the asagi...
Here's a closeup of the Nashiji on the Ipponmatsu Kiita. See how it looks...pear-ish? That's nashiji.
I ordered the Ippon Matsu because of the look of them. They've been showing up more frequently lately on the site, but they sell as soon as they're posted--they're just so lovely to look at, and they are apparently solid hones as well. I can't wait to try it out...
I've used Maruoyama hones before. I have three small ones I got to try out...
They're the stamped ones at the top. From Left to Right that's a "Tenjou (heavenly) Tomae Uguisu (Nightingale)", a Gousa/Aisa, and a Shiro Suita Sunashi.
I found that the Maruo Suita and Tomae were kind of soft for razors, but outstanding for other edges. The Gousa was a good one for raozrs, too, but not quite to the level of the Nakayama hones I've tried.
Good, but not outstanding.
But I love supporting Tsuchihashi-san, he's a lovely gentleman and very helpful (he runs classes for Kyoto tourists, teaching them about the history of Kyoto stones and giving sharpening classes) and the stones are such beautiful objects...I can't help myself!
This is actually my second order from Tsuchihashi-san, the 3rd generation owner of Totoriya and miner in the Oouchi district of Kyoto. His stones are fresh honed, from the Honkuchi Naori AND the Aishi Naori. What that means is, there are a LOT of stones, and you have a wide range of options when you go to buy. The stones are not as hard as the Eastern Stones (Nakayama, Shoubudani, etc.) but very fine, and they are beautiful.
The Yellow stone is an Ippon Matsu (lone pine--the mine name) Kiita (yellow board) Nashiji (pearskin) hone. It's got a lovely pale yellow color, and I frankly don't care how well it hones--it's just gorgeous. The smaller hone is a Maruo-yama Kiiro (yellow colored) Suita. It's not VERY yellow...but hey, what do I know?
As you can see, the Yellow Suita is not very big, but it's well within barber hone size, and so fine for razor use. And it's got a lovely yellow tint in the asagi...
Here's a closeup of the Nashiji on the Ipponmatsu Kiita. See how it looks...pear-ish? That's nashiji.
I ordered the Ippon Matsu because of the look of them. They've been showing up more frequently lately on the site, but they sell as soon as they're posted--they're just so lovely to look at, and they are apparently solid hones as well. I can't wait to try it out...
I've used Maruoyama hones before. I have three small ones I got to try out...
They're the stamped ones at the top. From Left to Right that's a "Tenjou (heavenly) Tomae Uguisu (Nightingale)", a Gousa/Aisa, and a Shiro Suita Sunashi.
I found that the Maruo Suita and Tomae were kind of soft for razors, but outstanding for other edges. The Gousa was a good one for raozrs, too, but not quite to the level of the Nakayama hones I've tried.
Good, but not outstanding.
But I love supporting Tsuchihashi-san, he's a lovely gentleman and very helpful (he runs classes for Kyoto tourists, teaching them about the history of Kyoto stones and giving sharpening classes) and the stones are such beautiful objects...I can't help myself!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Stones, Lies and Inkan
The slow spread of Nagura in the honing world has led to some confusion.
This picture shows two stamps.
The top one, the red one, is the "official" stamp of a man named Nagayuki Asano (stop me if you've heard this before.) The second one says "Jun Mikawa Shironagura". It means "Pure Mikawa White Nagura."
These stamps, together, form a kind of authentication, proving that the stone actually is what it should be. The use of these stamps as a sign of true nagura was established decades ago, at the behest of Kousuke Iwasaki. He did this because a lot of the stones that were called nagura were cheap, coarse and full of bad stuff, and he felt like they were ruining his honing. He enlisted the help of Asano, a former geologist and lecturer at a trade school in Aichi to help him find and check the best stones for use in honing. The practice continues today, and the current tester of Mikawa nagura ore in Aichi prefecture, a man named Morio Sakamoto, tests and stamps every true Nagura stone. Sakamoto inherited the stamps from Asano-san and has been charged with making sure that the authentic Mikawa Nagura are recognized. He stamps them for seam, tests for purity and quality, and distributes them to the retailers who still sell Nagura in Japan...or rather, the true Nagura.
Because, just as in the days of Kousuke Iwasaki, there are fakes. There are stones that have a similar texture and appearance to the true nagura, and are often sold as just that. These stones, according to Iwasaki, are full of coarse, damaging inclusions. In addition, there are stones from the Mikawa mine that are also full of inclusions, and these are discarded.
These stones, the counterfeits and the discarded Mikawa stones, are not stamped--they aren't officially recognized as worthy of the Mikawa nagura name, but they are still out there and people sell them, sometimes for considerable amounts of money...Nagura are sold by weight here, with prices differing based on seam and on coloration. The most expensive, tokusen Koma, are 3,780JPY for 100g, or roughly US$12 an ounce. That's more, ounce per ounce, than your typical Nakayama Maruka. Unstamped stones may be slightly cheaper, but only SLIGHTLY.
So there is real money in counterfeiting these stones, and real savings in using cheap or free unstamped ones. But you're running a risk doing so...and you're most likely NOT getting whatever stone you think you are (if the ONE GUY who judges these stones for seam didn't stamp it, then how can some random knife-maker tell a Koma from a yabotan?).
Let me illustrate this from personal experience.
When I was in Kyoto, I bought some Honzan stones, some expensive, some not. Whenever I was buying, I asked if there were any Koma nagura to be had. Most said no, but one vendor said "I think I have some", and brought out a huge box of unstamped nagura. He rummaged through, and laid out 4 big stones. "I think there might be a koma here" he said, and gave them to me. Gave, as in free. Based on the size alone, these 4 stones would have cost 2,000-6,000 yen each, had they been stamped nagura; in fact, the total price of the Nagura, had they been stamped, would have been more than the honzan! However, they weren't stamped, and I wasn't about to use them without knowing what they were.
I sent them to Sakamoto-san for testing, because he very generously offers a service for people just like me-people who get nagura with no stamps, and need to know before I hurt my blades using bad stones. And he does it FOR FREE. All you pay is shipping.
He tested the four stones, and it turns out that they were all true Mikawa nagura--I had one yabotan, two Tenjou and one Koma. But they were all full of chunks of hard quartz and needles of rock that could seriously damage both my razors and my stones...meaning they were unusable for razors. They were discards. They were GARBAGE. Thus the price...or lack of one.
So I got free Nagura, which were unstamped, but they were dangerous to use. Some people pay money for unstamped nagura...which are dangerous to use.
I really wish it would stop.
I know some people who have been using unstamped nagura and had no complaints. That's great, and I hope they continue to have no problems. But I would like to recommend that people NOT BUY unstamped nagura. If someone is selling a stone that they call a Koma nagura, but it doesn't have the official stamp, they are either selling a rock that is NOT a mikawa stone, or a Mikawa stone that wasn't worth selling...at high Nagura prices. They are lying. And if you pay them for it, it won't stop.
Just my two cents.
This picture shows two stamps.
The top one, the red one, is the "official" stamp of a man named Nagayuki Asano (stop me if you've heard this before.) The second one says "Jun Mikawa Shironagura". It means "Pure Mikawa White Nagura."
These stamps, together, form a kind of authentication, proving that the stone actually is what it should be. The use of these stamps as a sign of true nagura was established decades ago, at the behest of Kousuke Iwasaki. He did this because a lot of the stones that were called nagura were cheap, coarse and full of bad stuff, and he felt like they were ruining his honing. He enlisted the help of Asano, a former geologist and lecturer at a trade school in Aichi to help him find and check the best stones for use in honing. The practice continues today, and the current tester of Mikawa nagura ore in Aichi prefecture, a man named Morio Sakamoto, tests and stamps every true Nagura stone. Sakamoto inherited the stamps from Asano-san and has been charged with making sure that the authentic Mikawa Nagura are recognized. He stamps them for seam, tests for purity and quality, and distributes them to the retailers who still sell Nagura in Japan...or rather, the true Nagura.
Because, just as in the days of Kousuke Iwasaki, there are fakes. There are stones that have a similar texture and appearance to the true nagura, and are often sold as just that. These stones, according to Iwasaki, are full of coarse, damaging inclusions. In addition, there are stones from the Mikawa mine that are also full of inclusions, and these are discarded.
These stones, the counterfeits and the discarded Mikawa stones, are not stamped--they aren't officially recognized as worthy of the Mikawa nagura name, but they are still out there and people sell them, sometimes for considerable amounts of money...Nagura are sold by weight here, with prices differing based on seam and on coloration. The most expensive, tokusen Koma, are 3,780JPY for 100g, or roughly US$12 an ounce. That's more, ounce per ounce, than your typical Nakayama Maruka. Unstamped stones may be slightly cheaper, but only SLIGHTLY.
So there is real money in counterfeiting these stones, and real savings in using cheap or free unstamped ones. But you're running a risk doing so...and you're most likely NOT getting whatever stone you think you are (if the ONE GUY who judges these stones for seam didn't stamp it, then how can some random knife-maker tell a Koma from a yabotan?).
Let me illustrate this from personal experience.
When I was in Kyoto, I bought some Honzan stones, some expensive, some not. Whenever I was buying, I asked if there were any Koma nagura to be had. Most said no, but one vendor said "I think I have some", and brought out a huge box of unstamped nagura. He rummaged through, and laid out 4 big stones. "I think there might be a koma here" he said, and gave them to me. Gave, as in free. Based on the size alone, these 4 stones would have cost 2,000-6,000 yen each, had they been stamped nagura; in fact, the total price of the Nagura, had they been stamped, would have been more than the honzan! However, they weren't stamped, and I wasn't about to use them without knowing what they were.
I sent them to Sakamoto-san for testing, because he very generously offers a service for people just like me-people who get nagura with no stamps, and need to know before I hurt my blades using bad stones. And he does it FOR FREE. All you pay is shipping.
He tested the four stones, and it turns out that they were all true Mikawa nagura--I had one yabotan, two Tenjou and one Koma. But they were all full of chunks of hard quartz and needles of rock that could seriously damage both my razors and my stones...meaning they were unusable for razors. They were discards. They were GARBAGE. Thus the price...or lack of one.
So I got free Nagura, which were unstamped, but they were dangerous to use. Some people pay money for unstamped nagura...which are dangerous to use.
I really wish it would stop.
I know some people who have been using unstamped nagura and had no complaints. That's great, and I hope they continue to have no problems. But I would like to recommend that people NOT BUY unstamped nagura. If someone is selling a stone that they call a Koma nagura, but it doesn't have the official stamp, they are either selling a rock that is NOT a mikawa stone, or a Mikawa stone that wasn't worth selling...at high Nagura prices. They are lying. And if you pay them for it, it won't stop.
Just my two cents.
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