#779 Shoubudani Iromono Nashiji Suminagashi Easy Fast Super Buttery 3 Hard 3+ Fine Type 40 1270 grams

Big, super buttery 'special selection' type 40 (40 could be carried at a time) Shoubudani iromono with reddish suminagashi patterns, red nashiji spots a school of namazu and a bit of light suminagashi. This stone is fast cutting and so easy to use. It made a nice classic hazy kasumi finish on a variety of steels tested. Very smooth and buttery feel with this stone, a really good knife finishing stone for knives that like a toothy polished edge or as a pre-polisher for an extra fine stone. Bonus points for its big size and lack of cracks as well as being very pretty, definitly a premium stone. 

Not sealed with cashew lacquer

Shoubudani: A ‘Higashi-mono’ (Eastern Mine Stone), Shoubudani is well known for producing a wide range of stones with different hardness and fineness. The Shoubudani mine produces some of the higher quality natural whetstones that are akin to Nakayama mine stones in their beautiful finish.

Iromono: Iromono is a term that represents a broad range of colors, usually purples, oranges, yellows, and greens. Usually the colors are shown in swirls and waves. A lot of nice Shoubudani and Ohira polishing stones feature Iromono color palettes.

Namazu:

Translating to ‘cat-fish’, this aesthetic quality looks like white blotches on the stone. Usually this quality has a great sharpening feel that is smooth and tactile. 

Nashiji:

Meaning ‘pear-skin’, this aesthetic quality looks like tiny brown/pale dots on the stone. This quality can look similar to Su-holes on Suita stones as well as be a quality on Suita.

202x75x37mm 1270 grams