#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