A Pleasant Visit

In a nearby town, there is an old "kanamonoyasan". That word is hard to translate--it basically means "Metal thing shop." I've passed it at least 50 times over the last couple of years, and I never went in for some reason. Until last week or so.>

The wife and I were out and about and had some time open, so we pulled in. And lo and behold, there was a big sign saying "We hone."

I went in, and it was just perfect--the shelves were overloaded with pretty much anything you can think of in the tool/equipment vein...saws, knives, nails, and more. I poked around and looked at the knives, and then the owner came out, fitting the place like a glove. 60 years old if he was a day, happy to chat and see us, and more than happy when we started to talking about hones.

He only stocked artificials...king and Naniwa green carbon hones, and only a few, but when we started talking about naturals he went back and brought out his hones.

He had a few suita and aoto, for sharpening his customers' kitchen knives, plane blades and the like. He wasn't entirely sure of what kind of stones he had (Mo...moto...motoyama?) but he had used up quite a few of them over the years. He was so excited to talk about them, that he went in the back and got some old broken stones for me.

We thanked him for his generosity, of course, and went on our way. I'm astounded at how often this happens...people are so generous here, it's such a warm nation.







They are, admittedly, broken--but not beyond use, especially as tomo-nagura.

I decided to open up the suita and flatten out the back.

I took a chisel to the crack in the center of the stone and a tiny tap opened it up.



It split a little off center, but still left me with one reasonably usable hone and one that I can cut up for tomonagura use. So fun!

But you know, this is yet another example of something I've noticed at other sharpening places...they only sell artificial stones because customers don't buy naturals, but the professionals themselves always use naturals.

I've seen this at knife shops in Kyoto, at kanamonoya here in Yamaguchi, and among Miyadaiku (The highly skilled "temple carpenters")...the pros use naturals. I still don't know why but it's interesting...

Anyway, just thought I'd share.