Update: Major price decrease
Selling some repeats. All performers, mostly hand picked in Japan. Some rarer stuff, but all affordable. Mostly in the condition that I bought them in, except a few demo runs & uses on the back side of the Maruo
Mostly priced at a good discount or at my purchase price straight from Japan. On aggregate, I lose money. Feel free to make offers, though I might have to wait a bit for other offers to come in.
Did some quick demos with my B#1 tester knife I use for travel testing purposes. Unfortunately did not have a lot of time or knives around, so not able to demo other steel / iron combinations. Knife was polished up to Koma and then tested on many finishers. Stone are lapped with a dead #600 Atoma
Ships from Beijing and arrives at most places in a week. I'll cover the first $35 of int'l shipping (unlikely to exceed $50)
Shoubudani Kuro Renge Suita
A rare bird with great looks. A very big, easy-to-use finer stone with high contrast.
Kuro renge tend to be very hard and more acidic stones. This one is somewhat atypical of Kuro renge. It’s harder in a useful way (my ideal level of hardness) but also friable, so gives good hand feel and ease-of-use. Acidity is reasonable. A bit higher than normal renge, but not bad (see polish vid). Spraying with baking soda will help avoid uneven darkening of the iron. Golden lines are only aesthetic and not toxic.
Okudo Shiro Suita
A rare knife-friendly and high-purity Okudo suita hand picked in Japan. Hand feel is a smoother one a lot like a high-quality harder Ohira I have. Gives a typical high-quality softer Eastern suita finish, with a clearer core than the said Ohira and a lighter colored but strong kasumi clad. Price factors in the missing corners.
Ohira Uchigumori Hato
An atypical fast and fine Uchigumori hato at a useful hardness for kitchen knives. Uchi are typically slower stones used as effect stones to bring out visuals after other stones are done cutting. This one kind of does both, so you have an option of using it as both a suita and an effect stone.
I haven't tried it on wrought iron. The box describes its effect on swords.
SOLD - Hideriyama Aisa, Nashiji Iromono
Super easy kasumi stone. Hideri's Aisa is Soft and muddy, atypical of the layer. The stone is pretty decently fast and gives potent frosty kasumi (that is silky smooth to the finger touch). Has some nashiji on the surface and red colors in the middle.
Hand picked at Tanaka toishi, a very reputable vendor/mine owner in Kyoto. Tanaka told me that this stone used to be a standard finisher for sushi chefs throughout Japan for years, before the Hideri query was closed down around late 2000s after a serious flooding event.
SOLD - Maruoyama Shiro Suita:
Huge and amazing performer. Absolute workhorse of a stone, an attribute that earned Maruo its reputation. Picked in person at Totoriya's. On the hand feels like a race car version of a great Shoubu. Creamy smooth and very fast. It's was such a standout that I chose it over many other perfect square bricks, despite my strong preference towards the latter. After purchasing, I asked Totoriya to let me know of similar but purer specimen in the future, he said that it will be quite unlikely to find something like it again.
Both sides work. Lines on the surfaces are just color. Would suggest avoiding su layers down in the middle as they are problematic. But you still have a ton of usable stone as the lines run parallel enough and the stone is so thick. (You can probably even cut through the middle to get 2 very usable bench size stones, though not necessary)
Selling some repeats. All performers, mostly hand picked in Japan. Some rarer stuff, but all affordable. Mostly in the condition that I bought them in, except a few demo runs & uses on the back side of the Maruo
Mostly priced at a good discount or at my purchase price straight from Japan. On aggregate, I lose money. Feel free to make offers, though I might have to wait a bit for other offers to come in.
Did some quick demos with my B#1 tester knife I use for travel testing purposes. Unfortunately did not have a lot of time or knives around, so not able to demo other steel / iron combinations. Knife was polished up to Koma and then tested on many finishers. Stone are lapped with a dead #600 Atoma
Ships from Beijing and arrives at most places in a week. I'll cover the first $35 of int'l shipping (unlikely to exceed $50)
Shoubudani Kuro Renge Suita
A rare bird with great looks. A very big, easy-to-use finer stone with high contrast.
Kuro renge tend to be very hard and more acidic stones. This one is somewhat atypical of Kuro renge. It’s harder in a useful way (my ideal level of hardness) but also friable, so gives good hand feel and ease-of-use. Acidity is reasonable. A bit higher than normal renge, but not bad (see polish vid). Spraying with baking soda will help avoid uneven darkening of the iron. Golden lines are only aesthetic and not toxic.
- Price: $1285
$1395, cost at $1750 from @lacasadetoishi. - Weight: 1900g
- Size: 252x85x40 (very big)
- Hardness: slightly above 4, but friable, feels more like 3.8
- Speed: pretty decently fast
- Effect: high-contrast finish w/ semi-mirror core at 9k+ grit and dark kasumi clad. Decent detail on my Kiri
Price: $655 $765Weight: 910Size: 207 x 78 x 26Hardness: 4-Speed: Very fastEffect: 8-9k fineness with a brighter semi-mirror core and lighter-color but dense kasumi clad.
I haven't tried it on wrought iron. The box describes its effect on swords.
Price: $665 $835, bought for JPY154k ($1130 at exchange rate then) from MoriheiWeight: 930gSize: 209 x 76 x 27Hardness: 3.5Speed: quite fast, especially compared to most UchigumoriEffect: Typical higher-contrast Uchi hato finish but at finer ~7k grit
Hand picked at Tanaka toishi, a very reputable vendor/mine owner in Kyoto. Tanaka told me that this stone used to be a standard finisher for sushi chefs throughout Japan for years, before the Hideri query was closed down around late 2000s after a serious flooding event.
Price: $675 $730, JNS sells the same for $800-1000 (see here and here)Weight: 1455gSize: 205 x 77 x 42Hardness: 3-Speed: pretty decently fast, but covered up by the muddiness of the stoneEffect: strong kasumi with frosty ~6k grit core
Both sides work. Lines on the surfaces are just color. Would suggest avoiding su layers down in the middle as they are problematic. But you still have a ton of usable stone as the lines run parallel enough and the stone is so thick. (You can probably even cut through the middle to get 2 very usable bench size stones, though not necessary)
Price: $765Weight: 2250gSize: 210 x 82 x 57 (huge)Hardness: 3.7Speed: very fastEffect: high-contrast finish typical of Maruo Shiro, with hazy mirror core 7-8k grit and dark kasumi clad
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