FS: Oohira Karasu

[Malacoda]

This is a great stone - on of my best: an Oohira Karasu originally purchased from Teshiba-san (of Mandalaya (http://www2.odn.ne.jp/mandaraya/index.html) in Japan).

Used with a full set naguras (not included) - or even just water when simply refreshing an edge - I've used this stone to take razors from just off of my 1k bevel setter all the way up to finished without any problem whatsoever. Revisor, Palmera, Filly, Griffon, Friodur - all given stellar, mirror-finish bevels (that delivered some of my best shaves) from on this beauty.

As I said, this is one of my best hones - and if it weren't for the fact that I need to fund a new purchase... and that the mud produced by my j-nats (pretty much all of them) sets off my wife's sinuses for some reason - thereby severely limiting my use of them... I would not be giving it up.

This puppy is a big boy measuring in at: 8.25" x 3" x 1.5" (208 mm x 77 mm x 40 mm)

The final two pics shows the stamps it had when I purchased it (e.g. prior to lapping it).

Lapped, smooth as glass, and ready for use.

$430 CONUS including shipping. (I will cover first $15 of postage for overseas shipping.)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ArxKiB5LpOI/Th2WPw-IRRI/AAAAAAAAAt8/6Mytq6nZPUw/s640/rzr-stone%252520032.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-uu3hcRkl5Yw/Th2WPV4um9I/AAAAAAAAAt4/lUHEFOKqmjI/s640/rzr-stone%252520031.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ii1lNNJqq_w/Th2WQfAwIDI/AAAAAAAAAuA/KASDlWArivY/s640/rzr-stone%252520033.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k6l2bQbRjgI/Th2WRq9dn3I/AAAAAAAAAuE/a-n4OGeJnvg/s640/rzr-stone%252520034.jpg

Color is a little off in these two pics as they were just very quick snapshots I took under indoor fluorescent lights when I first got the stone to document the stamps before I lapped it...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FxdMrQEfzPk/Th2XSltgRBI/AAAAAAAAAuY/O77Z490aLsI/s640/Oohira%252520Karasu%252520001.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--G4vVXnMAoc/Th2XTGEpVmI/AAAAAAAAAuc/Omk5bgID7Ks/s640/Oohira%252520Karasu%252520006.JPG

[Woodash]

Relative hardness? - or your sense of this as either a prepolisher or finisher? What kind of slurry (quantity) do you get with tomonagura?

[Malacoda]

Relative hardness? - or your sense of this as either a prepolisher or finisher? What kind of slurry (quantity) do you get with tomonagura?

I suspect die-hard j-nat users would classify it as a high-end pre-polisher - e.g. just a little softer than a kiita or asagi.

It's so close though that I actually consider it to be a cross-over finisher...

I use it to finish and refresh blades known to be of harder, higher quality steel - e.g. the Revisor, Filly, Friodur, and Palmera mentioned in the original post - using nothing more than water on the stone.

I also use it to take blades - including the Filly and Palmera - from a 1k DMT bevel all the way to hair-popping-HHT-sharp, mirror-bevel finish using the full sequence of naguras .

Not sure how to quantify the amount of slurry obtained with a tomonagura given that it is pretty dependent (as with any stone) on how long and how hard you rub. The closest comparison I can think of using in an attempt to answer this question would be to say that it takes just a little less pressure and time to build a slurry with a tomonagura on this stone than on the kiita and asagi I've used in the past... not by much though, just a hair less.

One of the reasons I consider it my best stone is that it has gives me a bit more flexibility than my kiita or asagi had. Its ever-so-slightly lower hardness - combined with the silica particles (which make up the black spots in karasu stones) - allows slurries from the botan, tenjou, and mejiro naguras build a little quicker and work a little quicker...

..and yet it's hard enough so that finishing with a koma nagura, tomonagura, and plain water also works fairly quick while being non-aggressive enough to allow for very nice fine tuning control.