I don't buy hones for hones. I don't buy them as tools. Because that would imply that I need better tools than I have, that my equipment is lacking somehow. It isn't. I don't. I haven't for a long time...with experience and learning, I have found that the hones I have, especially the ones I got from Kawaguchi-sensei, are as good as it gets. With every step I take along the honing path, I find more and more that I have been gifted with the tools of a true master, and all I lack to use them as a master is time and skill.
So why do I still buy hones?
Take a look at these pictures. I bet you might understand...
This an Ozaki-yama hone. Kousuke Iwasaki rated these as second only to the Maruka Nakayama hones for razors; oddly, in his book he said that they are priced and valued lower than Nakayamas only because of their "boring grey color." I think that you can see, this is not a universal...
It almost looks airbrushed, with light blue, grey and yellowish streaks blending together. When wet, the blue pops out so vibrantly...
Don't ask me how it hones, because every time I pick it up to use it I just gaze at it like a picture for a while, put it down and pick up my barber's old hones.
Then there's this one:
This is a Nakayama kiita nashiji.
I'm not really sure I need to write anything about this stone.
People wonder why honers get excited about natural hones...this answers any questions they might have.
What a joy to have in front of me...what a privilege to use, someday.
4 comments:
Beautiful hones ya got there :)
That is the same thing that first caught my eye when I started thinking of upgrading my razor hones. Of all the Natural stones out there the Japanese hones just look fantastic and it's hard not to want to get more of them :)
The magic of stones, this is what fascinates me.
Thanks guys. They're good lookers...who cares how they hone, right?
Right Jim.
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