NAKAYAMA10

A fascinating stone beautifully marked with the clearest Maruka end stamp, this is a stone for someone with excellent sharpening skills because this stone is very hard to use without nagura or diamond nagura. It yields a polish on the blade that is bright mirror like on the hagane hard steel and a soft mirror on the jigane, just what you are looking for in a high grade stone. The grit test was performed on the inclusion portion of the stone with no affects to the polish of the blade because the mineral content of the inclusion is softer then the grit of the stone. This is a stone that will only get better with time and use. The grit particle on this stone is about 43,000.

Reads on the stone top from the upper right down, JUN SHOSHIN HONYAMA (pure specially chosen original mountain) which is a registered trade name,

Marked clearly on the end of the stone No.23 and in a rectangle KA SHO HON YAMA (Maruka correct true original mountain).

This Nakayama Maruka awasedo toishi stone is NEW/OLD stock from a closed store in Japan. It has not been used other than to test the quality at one edge of the stone as you can see in the photos.

You may find other references to the Maruka Nakayama mines on the internet. This mine was known throughout its history to produce the finest awasedo finishing stones in Japan and probably in the world. The Maruka stamp on the end, the registered stamp on the top of this stone and the single toothed fine saw marks help to date the stone to before WW2.

This is an actual Maruka Nakayama awasedo, it is not a fake. Stones of this color and varity have not been mined from Nakayama for well over half a century and they never will be mined again as these rare deposits are depleted. The mine was closed in the 1960s, and I will not be able to replace or offer these stones again.

This is a very hard stone and it requires advanced sharpening skills to use. The change in color indicates it is from the edge of the strata. These very hard stones are more easily used if a diamond nagura (DN) plate is used before hand to build up a slurry.

HARDNESS Based on a scale of 1-10	10++
GRIT Scale of 1-10	10+
CUTTING SPEED/STRENGTH 1-10	7	10+w/DN
COST Does Not Include Shipping	$2800

*In usage when you encircle a kanji word as in this case KA, it becomes MARU (circle) KA or MARUKA.