Sharpening Time

Over Christmas I had time to do a little sharpening, well I call it practice sharpening, because until Master Masakazu my good friend in Japan sent over some natural waterstones I did not know the true meaning of sharpening and its skill.

Up to now I have been sharpening using the Japanese man made Shapton waterstones. This is a 1500 grit stone with a 50mm blade it works for 70mm too.

For this amusing photo to happen your stone and blade need to be 100% flat oh and a little practice. The things that you need to remember when sharpening are:

Feel,touch,sound,sight and smell.

These gifts are the roads to your inner spirit ,thats why sharpening is a pleasure for me not a chore and the rewards of using a razor sharp blade is so emotional. It is your mind you are honing not just your blade.

There is something special about the earths natural materials and one of these materials are waterstones ( Toishi ).

Master Masakazu , Toru-san and Ohire Kogei have helped me by selecting these natural Koppa Toishi. I am very grateful to them.

They are finishing stones that create a lovely  looking hazy finish to the cutting edge.

The outer two I have just made bases for, I copied the middle one that Masakazu had made.

The stone is set in about 6mm to give max usable stone life. take your time and follow the shape of the stone base. It looks like they are set in a resin.

Heres the base profile. The timber is mahogany ( lian )

I will let you know how I get on with these treasures in the New year.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for watching.

Andy Ryalls