Can anyone ID a Japanese natural stone?

[James Taglienti]

I bought a japanese natural stone the other day. I dont know much more about it, its about 3" wide and 7" long without the base. I don't even have any waterstones to compare the grit to. It leaves a hazy mirror polish with some deeper scratches in it. The black spot is in the stone. The base is old growth pine, and the stone is puttied in place. Does anyone know how I can identify this thing? Or does it even matter with this kind of stone?

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[David Weaver]

A couple of points, as I don't know if you'll find much deep knowledge on japanese natural stones here:
* except for some distinct stones, it's hard to tell the mine a lot of middle of the road stones came from if they're not stamped, especially if you haven't used hundreds of them. I think you'd have to go to someone like alex gilmore or So to find out if it would have any value beyond being user stuff. Stones from different strata in the same mine often look (to me) much different than stones from different mines. Seeing the back can be helpful, too, but I wouldn't yank it out of the base unless there's a hunch that it might be valuable.
* the deeper scratches may be a problem, but it depends on how deep they are and how hard the stone sare. Top class hard stones aren't scratchy, at least not to a problematic level even if they feel like they might be, nor are soft stones in general, but some mid-level very hard stones can be scratchy or borderline scratchy, which isn't desirable.
* Knowing the mine increases the value a lot, especially if you can verify it somehow, but the grade stamp on that stone would be long gone. Things that would make it valuable, like having come from a barber shop, etc, are long lost if they're not relayed to someone along the way.
* It looks fairly well taken care of for a vintage stone, I would guess for tools, but guessing value is a complete wild goose chase. For a natural stone, it does look like it brings the back of a chisel to a decent level of polish. Only the very finest hard non-scratchy natural japanese stones will bring hard steel to a bright polish.

If you lap the surface of it a little bit, it would be interesting to find out if the scratchiness still exists. It could very well be a stone that is only worth $40 or $50 for antique curiosity (if it didn't originate in kyoto) or it could be worth more if it turns out to be fairly uniform and capable of finishing edges.

Most razor buyers (which seems to be where the funny money is being spent) will want something concrete letting them know a stone worth more than a pittance as a "pre-finisher", and most knife people are sort of funny in the head, demanding a finish from a stone that looks a certain way.

Use it for a little while and see what you think of it. Decide how uniform it is, what it compares to vs. synthetics or other stones you might have, and how hard it is - of common stones, a stone that can be hard enough not to release grit into a slurry is more versatile and has a better chance of being used as a finisher.

[Jack Curtis]

To identify a Japanese water stone without hints, I'd resort to my Japanese ebay supplier of lots of stuff, including stones, 330mate_com, Tomonori-san. He is somehow associated with a Japanese mine, not sure how exactly; but he seems to know his stones, sharpening, and tools. I don't know whether he'll answer questions about stones he doesn't sell, but it's worth a try.

Basically I agree that the process to follow is to flatten the stone and try it, see how it fits in with your system. Results, of course, may vary with the steel.

[David Weaver]

I saw on the razor board that someone thinks it's possibly a magog. The slurry looks nice, whatever it is, looks fairly fine.

[James Taglienti]

Thanks guys!