#769 Vintage Barbers kamisori toishi

I do not know which mine this stone came from but it was most
likely mined back to the 1920 or earlier in and around Kyoto..
A humble but dear Japanese barbers hone. Dull dark gray and
simple, this was an actual barbers hone and came to me as part
of a large collection of other kamisori barbers hones. The ends
the sides are raw and natural. The back has been partially
flattened, the top surface has been lapped perfectly flat and
burnished.

I have honed a couple of razors on this stone beginning with a
#1200 diamond plate made slurry, and doing 3 series of 30 x strokes
with 20 stropping strokes in between series, then followed a light
consistency tomonagura slurry and 20 more edge leading strokes
followed by 20x more passes on the strop. You could also take
your razor up to 5k or 8k and just use this stone with a lot fewer
strokes as a final finishing stone. The shave was pretty good.

This is not a slow stone but because of the size it requires more
time on the stone.

The stone (toishi) has been lapped flat and the
corners and edges beveled unless otherwise noted. All of my
stones come with a tested and appropriately sized tomonaguara
slurry stone, and a money back guarantee minus the return shipping.
 
Hardness               9++
Particle Size           9+++
Speed/Cutting       8++ to 9+ with slurry