Nakayama Kiita Mokume Namito
Nakayama is the quarry – this is an authentic Honyama.
Kiita is the color, a bit yellow-ish.
Mokume is the pattern, reminiscent of wood grain.
Namito is the strata this stone formed in.
This is a fairly rare and unique stone; we don’t often see razor-quality stones from Namito strata, let alone one with a very pronounced and beautiful Mokume, or wood grain, pattern.
Namito is a deep strata, but depth does not indicate hardness. This stone here is fairly hard – not super hard. I’d say it’s way past hard enough and just at the doorstep to ‘very hard’.
It’s a little thirsty at first, but that settles down fairly quickly. The honing feedback is a lovely pasty sensation with only a slight bit of graininess to it. Mikawa Shiro Nagura progressions work well on this stone, but there is some ‘kick-back’ from the base stone. Water only laps are a breeze and finishing on broken-down trace slurry is equally satisfying. The finished edges off this stone have been both smooth and very keen.
I love honing on this one – a lot. What appears to be a narrow runway is actually a major asset when dealing with warped blades. For whatever reason, I don’t notice the width on this one – possibly because it’s a nice thick slab and the heft stabilizes the stone in my hand. The generous length makes for quite a satisfying feeling when doing x-strokes; this really is a lovely hone to work on.
8.0 x 2.0 x 1.25” – measured in the middle of the stone.
889 g
