Japanese Natural Toishi Knife Polishing Whetstone - Nakayama Tomae Iromono

This Japanese whetstone was purchased by us from a collector who had originally purchased it from Alex Gilmore of The Japan Stone.  It measures 195 mm (7.68 in) long × 90 mm (3.54 in) wide × 18 mm (0.71 in) tall, and weighs 620g.

Stone Testing Details:

Hardness: LV 2.3
This is a very soft and medium fast cutting stone that resembles a shallow Tomae layer or Akapin. The stone immediately self slurries with rich red mud. The finish is medium fine and I noticed that there are larger sized particles that lead to a scratchy finish that I wasn't able to break down further. The lines on the stone are not felt and they're not the source of the larger/harder particles. sometimes, stones will have higher amounts of quartz and this causes scratching of the cladding. This could be an example of higher quartz/element content creating the rogue scratches. With all this being said, this stone is great for knife edges, Kasumi pre-polish or a beginner Kasumi stone. It has a rich, earthy, red slurry that is pleasant and smooth to work with when polishing knives. It does an excellent job at darkening the cladding to a deep, hazy, matte finish. The Hagane is misty and bright making a striking, contrasting Kasumi Finish.

A photo of the resulting polish left on a high quality Japanese knife is shown.