Japan is MADE of hones.
Now, I'm not saying that every rock you find laying around here is going to put some awesome edge on your knife or razor. But as far as being able to grind steel, I think it's way more common than you might think.
This isn't so far fetched, you know. People (my folks and others) used to sharpen their kitchen knives on the front porch steps, or on the bottom of a pot or whatever abrasive you could find. And stone, being what it is, is all about abrasives. Now, of course not literally every stone is going to work as a great hone, but I genuinely believe that most of them will do the job for most basic use.
The thing that really drove this home was this list I found at Hamono no asobi (Japanese link). That page features a list of the professional hone mines that are known to the author...and there are a TON of them. Not only are there a lot of mines, but they're spread out all over the country. Of the 47 prefectures in Japan, there are 29 listed there. What's more, I know that list is incomplete because it doesn't list the Iwakuni mine which was in business until the 1980's...so that's 30 prefectures, and then there are the smaller local mines that never really got professional, so there's a good chance that there are hone mines in every single prefecture in this country.
Not all of these are of the extremely high quality of the Kyoto finishing stones, though there are others that supposedly rival them. Most of the mines produce rougher utility hones, for home and garden use. But they do the job, and they were useful enough to make some people enough money to justify the work in digging them out.
They're all types, as well. Volcanic accretions, sandstones, shales and more...all kinds. Even something called "tuff" which, you know...weird.
So I guess my point is...OK, maybe I don't have a point. But it's pretty cool, don't you think? A lot of us, me and you who tend to read this blog, are so fascinated with these beautiful, exciting rocks that are, in fact, the bones of this country, and the bones run all over.
I really need to learn about Petrology. Any recommendations?
2 comments:
the main idea how to investigate and identify minerals:
http://www.eos.ubc.ca/courses/eosc221/petrology/tactics.html
"cross nicols" = observation of minerals under microscopes that are capable of cross polarization. Very informative technique of minerals examination.
As for books on petrology I have no idea which one is really worth for Your purposes. Most of such books contain a lot of things You never need.
one more usefull link on mineralogy:
http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/er/Min.html
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