Winter Sale at Kanayama

If you've been wanting to get hold of an NOS Razor from Japan, a Kanayama Cordovan Strop, or an Iwasaki 2 Chou Gake--NOW'S THE TIME



From today until Christmas, all products at Kanayama are on sale.

10% off Kanayama strops



15% off All NOS razors from Japan




5,500 JPY off the price of our Iwasaki 2 chou gake razors. (Only two left, then they're gone!)



Go take a look! Christmas is right around the corner, you know!

Meet Rusty

In an amazing confluence of events, a random post on SRP and an email from a stone supplier pushed me into buying a new stone. Amazing, huh?

This is an Oozuku Karasu.




















It's a big one, 200x75x25, and as you can see, it's got all kind of Karasu spotting. I got it for Kamisori, because they do tend to like longer stones.



Anyway, I was trying it out for the first time tonight, and I noticed something interesting...

Here is a fresh Koma slurry. My koma is pure white, so the gray comes from the stone.



Here is the same slurry after some honing.



It's getting thicker, so I made fresh slurry, and added water, and then honed some more.

And this happened:



That is clearly NOT gray.



Clearly, there is something in this stone that causes oxidation in the steel, turning the slurry rust colored.

I've heard of this before, but not seen it. It could be what the Japanese honers I know call "Gunpowder" (煙硝), meaning a high sulfur content (I think...). What effect does this have on the honing? I have no idea. But it sure is interesting.

For Those In Search of Koma

I get a LOT of requests for help finding Koma Nagura, which I understand, but I simply can't handle all of them. So here's one option for you, if you are looking.


I have gotten all of my Nagura thus far from one place: a shop in Nagasaki called "Mandala-ya"(Japanese site). The owner is a super friendly, super helpful carpenter named Teshiba-san, and he sells all kinds of lovely woodworking tools and good hones from his online shop there. He also gets his Mikawa Nagura directly from the source in Aichi, so they are all Asano stamped stones.



He sells a nice set of three (Botan, Tenjou and Mejiro) for 2000 JPY, which I highly recommend, and he does sometimes get Koma nagura, but they sell out so fast he doesn't even bother putting them on his site so you have to ask.

He also sells hones directly from the official source, the Kyoto Natural Hone Association so you can trust the quality.

Some advice for ordering:

The site is only in Japanese, but he told me that if you use simple English, you can email for information. PLEASE use short, simple sentences. He does accept PayPal, and he does ship internationally but he insists on EMS so shipping can be pricey. He does say that he's willing to mark "gift" for Customs purposes, as well.

I can very highly recommend dealing with Mr. Teshiba, he has been a real help to me and his service and products are outstanding, so I hope the language barrier isn't too high to get what you need!

So please, if you're looking for Koma Nagura (or indeed any number of stones, or Japanese Planes or chisels or the like) drop Teshiba-san at Mandala-ya an email.

(and if you're wondering, I'm not getting any for this, just wanting to help some people out on both sides).

Big Things Afoot at Maruoyama

Maruoyama stones have not been the best for razors. Until recently, that is.

As I hone more and more razors on Japanese stones, one thing becomes clear to me--the hardness of the stone is of immense importance. Soft stones simply don't give good shaving edges, no matter how pure or "fine" they might be. The Maruo stones I've had up until now have all been excellent for knives and the like, but they have simply been too soft for razors. The website for these stones, Totoriya (Japanese Link), lists this as one of the main differences between "Western Stones" (including Maruoyama) and "Eastern Stones" (including Nakayama).

However, the other day I was reading a blog (Japanese Link) kept by a self-named "Natural Stone Researcher", and he mentioned that he had just gotten a Maruo stone that was too hard for plane honing...which is usually just where we want razor stones to be. I contacted him, and he explained that the mine at Maruo was getting into the very center of the mountain, where the stones should be their hardest. Thus, there were new grades of stones being found all the time.

Not three days later, I saw right there one the Maruo home page their very first "Kamisori hone". Until now, not even the owner felt that the Maruo stones were quite right for razors, but now he had one that reached that point. Unfortunately it had sold already, but I contacted him and he said that more and more of these should be coming, though he couldn't predict when. I put in a standing order...and last Friday my stone came in!

This is a Maruoyama Kamisori To, from the Hachimai seam near to the Senmai seam.


(The wooden frame is a "honing base" from Totoriya, a cheap and interesting piece of work.)

As you can see, it's an almost uniform dark gray except for a portion at the side, which has a nice golden brown streaking.



It's small, and not really uniform, but there's plenty of honing space for razors.

I lapped it, and it was indeed hard--as hard as any Japanese stone I've tried. If you look at the slurry I raised with the botan:



You can see there there's only a hint of gray in the white--meaning that the slurry is primarily from the nagura, as it should be. Too much gray, and it would be slurry from the stone itself and no good for Botan honing. What's more, raising a slurry from the tomonagura I got from my barber took FOREVER, again--this means that the stone is hard enough to not release any slurry without being told to.

All of which is good news!

I've honed a couple of razors on it and will get back with the results, but the preliminary tests are encouraging. Fingers crossed!