Nakayama Honyama Japanese Natural Razor Hone Stone

Nakayama Honyama Japanese Natural Whetstone for Straight Razors

This is a fine grit, hard natural japanese whetstone.  Unlike artificial hones, the particles released by japanese natural hones break down to smaller and smaller pieces, so the polishing action becomes more refined as honing commences.  This type of stone is usually quoted as having a grit range which approximates 6k to 10k+.  What that means is that when you commence honing on it it is somewhere around 6k grit (this one is more like 8k at first in my experience) and as you proceed with honing the slurry breaks down to finer and finer particles (unlike with man-made stones) and the polishing action becomes more refined, or becomes equal to a higher grit, if you like.  To get to very high grit ratings many laps are needed.  I hone quite a number of razors each day, so this stone is too slow for me and I have never used that many laps on it.  With the number of laps and the slurry I have used, I would say that it is easily equivalent to 9k hone, but could be pushed further.  With my type of use, it leaves a nice shiny bevel to the naked eye, which appears a bit cloudy with a very fine scratch pattern under a powerful loupe.

The stone in its longest dimensions measures 5.75 inches (142mm) by 3.25 inches (83mm) by about 6/8ths of an inch (19mm) thick.  Two corners have medium sized clips to them and one has a small clip.  There are small cracks or fissures on the corners with large clips, but this is quite normal and the hone is sound.  It shows no evidence of cracks or hairline marks on the main honing surface.  It has a lot of little darker tear-drop shaped marks patterning the honing surface.The bottom has a nicely coloured skin, and although still bearing the original excavation marks it is tolerably level and a nice size to hand-hold.

The hone is shown dry in the pictures with the red back-drop and wetted in the other pictures to bring out the colours.  It does not come with a rubbing stone.

The stone was lapped flat some time ago, and still bears a faint inpression of the origianal stamp.  It is a bit dished and marked now and really needs lapping again.  If you are unable to do this let me know and I will do it for you free of charge.

Packaged weight will be around 875gms.