r/NaturalWhetstones

https://www.ebay.com/itm/336670240162

Got myself a set of 5 different Aoto from Japan back in June. They were from an auction lot with really bad photos, so it wasn’t so sure what these stones would actually, apart from the second stone, which was/is clearly an Aoto. The first and second stone did have some breakage during shipping, but nothing too serious, and these were not the reason I did bid on them stones in the first place anyways:

Stone 1: Generic Kyôto Aoto.
When it arrived it looked pockmarked, as if it was a side broken off from a bigger stone that had originally been used against the layers, not on the layers. As the stone is too thin to use against the layers I now have to use it on them, just like a Suita.
This one is fairly soft (2.5), with a grit of around 1000. Around 1kg.

Stone 2: Generic Kyôto Aoto.
This stone had some chunks broken off from the main surface. Some rusty kawa shining through at those breaking points. This one is used on the layers, which are lightly warped, which can be seen by the way the stone broke off, leaving me with some Nagura. Soft (3), grit of 1000, still 2.1kg despite some levelling. To level this one completely would take off around 200g, so I basically create a zone that I can use and then slowly use it up till it is level. I do expect some toxic lines in this one.

Stone 3&4: Kôzaki
These stones were the main reason to bid, despite not being sure what they actually were. Mined using chisels and clearly used against the layers, as can be seen on the last picture, which shows the front or backside of the stone. The top layer is gray with black dots, a typical pattern seen in Kôzaki Aoto. I’d rate both at 3.5 hardness, 2000 grit for No 3, 2500 for No 4. 2.1kg for 3, 2.8 for 4. The kanji on the side of stone 3 declares the stones to be part of a house building company, which can be seen with different levels of legibility on all but the first stone.

Stone 5: likely Kôzaki Chûma
Visually this stone is very close to the other Kôzaki but it behaves like a complete different beast, which is why I assume it is a Chûma, a special, hard layer in the Kôzaki mine, sitting between the Honkuchinaori and Aoto layers. Hardness 4.5, it does self slurry, eventually. Grit 6000. 1.4kg.

All in all, Aoto are not the most sexy stone out there with colours ranging from grey, brown to black. Some will have dotted patterns, others might have lines (of the different layers). Although they are mostly associated with Kyôto, another area in Japan would be Kantô, with stones like Ōizumi, Sukegawa, Arauchi. Grit can be anything from 600 (Saeki, Miyamachi) to 6000 ( eastern Ōizumi, harder Okabana).

My dream team:

Shapton pro 2k, 5+ mizu asagi (suita and unknown naguras), Ukrainian Dymchasty novaculite.

8x1.5 size. A nice narrow hone

The kind operators of Dans Arkansas whetstones allowed us to tour the facilities. Giant cutting machines, blades over 4’ wide, rocks, rocks, rocks

Bought some beauties and took a few cool seconds pictures:

9” cube of hard Arkansas with impurities making a pretty door stop

Spheres of hard stone used traditionally as crude rock hammers

A piece of hard Arkansas that transition to fern like impurities on the back side

Just looking at all my stones last night. Love honing my straight razors on all of them.

Deerlick Oilstone cuts faster than washita and finishes close to the same. It self slurries and the feedback is excellent. The Hindostan is real nice in the middle. I get it now.
Finished on a mottled gray Vermont slate. Very hard but satisfying feedback. Totally different sound and feel than hard Arkansas but finished just like a translucent.
Hit the leather and it silently cuts hair all over the edge. Tomorrow’s shave will tell the tale.

I used oil on all stones because I’m a real American. Of course some soldiers showed up to make sure I’m not using sanctioned oil.

Looks like Grey camouflage

From u/sophie_0323

Decided to try and work on my polishing skills today. Still feel like I’m missing something somewhere in my process. Or just the stone that will play with soft stainless cladding the way I want. But anyway here are three of my favorites. A yaginoshima range suita on top. Tsukinowa hon tomae asagi. Maruoyama shiro suita. None of them are giant stones but they start cutting fast and leave a nice finish.

From buying old oilstones, I’ve amassed a bunch of gunky old stone holder boxes. I’ve cleaned up the stones OK, but some of the boxes are quite nice and I’d like to keep them.

I’ve scrubbed one of the cleaner ones with Simple Green, but the dirtier ones would require a good soak, which wouldn’t be good for the wood.

Has anyone had any success cleaning all the old oil and swarf off old boxes without wrecking the wood?

What are the best stainless steels for knives on which natural whetstones still work well? Obviously we’re ruling out the usual supersteels, but do mid-range options with some carbides like VG10, AUS10, or 440C sharpen OK on naturals?

14C28N and AEB-L seem like good options, too - apparently they’re low carbide, but still good performers.

The photo’s just for illustration, but it’s a Damascus-clad VG10 blade I made a handle for. I’ve got a few VG10 knives, but I haven’t used them extensively on my natural stones yet. I mainly used my naturals on AUS8, cheap soft stainless, high carbon steel, and vintage HSS woodworking tools.

I had to get back these two old coticules from a buddy of mine. They are kind of thin on the coticule side, but I will still have a life of BBW left. One is a natural combo. One is a coti glued on BBW, separated, never glued back until today.
Both mating surfaces were lapped and epoxied back together, and lapped all around.
Inspired by u/On_to_the_Next, I had to steal them back

Making room in my collection.
$150 each
$250 both
Both are harder finer variety of washita
Degreased to user grade condition and meticulously lapped. Both are 8x2
Pic 1-7 stone 1
Pic 8-14 stone 2
Feel free to ask me questions.

A kiita and a suita