Review of Namikawa Heibei Sharpening Stone Kit
Jul 19, 2023 1:55:05 GMT
Post by larason2 on Jul 19, 2023 1:55:05 GMT
Since I’ve started collecting some Japanese water stones, I thought I would post a review of them! Among other things, I’ve built myself a traditional style Togi Dai, and have been making refinements to it. Here’s a picture of an early build:
Since then I’ve made some refinements to how the water drains out of it so it doesn’t leak so much! Inside is a plastic bucket I’ve modified to fit inside, and I am in the process of carving some drains in the wood so water flows better into the bucket.
Anyway, the first few stones I bought were Shapton stones, all synthetic, and I got them in 1000, 2000, 5000 and 8000 grit. These worked well for sharpening knives that were already in pretty good shape, with the 1000 and 2000 being sharpening, and the 5000 and 8000 being for polishing. The trouble I had though was if the knife was in bad shape, it would take a really long time at 1000 to make any progress! Polishing up to 8000 looked good on the edge, but on a large surface, the resulting finish looked a bit hazy, not like I expected.
So the next two stones I got were the Shapton 120 and 320. The 120 has really course grit, so it takes off quite a bit of material, which is good on knifes that have to be reprofiled, or for tools like chisels and axes. The 320, as expected, is kind of between that one and the 1000, so I don’t actually use it that much! The 120 works a bit better if a knife or tool needs lots of reprofiling, but I still wasn’t getting the final Japanese polish like I was expecting.
Finally, I got the Namikawa Heibei Japanese sword polishing kit. It comes with all the supplies to polish a Japanese sword, and I haven’t been able to experiment with all of them yet! I have been able to try out the main stones though, so I can comment a bit on those.
My kit came with 6 stones, going from coarsest to finest. All were synthetic except for the finest stone. They differed from the website in both colour and size for most of the stones.
1: Kongo-do
2: Binsui-do
3: Kaisei-do
4: Chu-nagura-do
5: Koma-nagura-do
6: Uchigomori do
The coarsest is the Kongo-do. The one I received is very similar to the one on the website. Grit wise it felt like it was somewhere between my Shapton 120 and 320, maybe around 200. It is a bit softer though than either, so it wears a bit faster than they do (which is true for the Namikawa Heibei synthetic stones in general). It also removes material a bit slower than the Shapton synthetics, so it takes a bit longer to use.
The Binsui-do I received was different from the one on the website. Mine was more of a blue-grey colour, though of similar size and shape to the white one in the picture. This one was close, but a bit coarser grit than my 1000 grit, maybe something like 800. It seemed to be one of the hardest of the Namikawa Heibei synthetic stones, and was good at sharpening, though again a bit slower than the Shapton.
The Kaisei-do I got was a bit of a strange one. The website one is grey, but mine was light tan. To the touch, it felt rougher than the Binsui-do, but not as rough feeling as the Kongo-do. When used to sharpen though, it actually felt a bit finer than my 2000 stone, maybe something like 3000.
The Chu-nagura-do I received was fairly dark brown. At these high grits, it’s hard to tell how similar or different it is from the 5000 and 8000 I have. It was a little bit harder than the other stones, but not as hard as the Binsui-do, and definitely softer than any Shapton stone. It produced a fine hazy polish similar to the 5000.
The Kama-nagura-do I received was quite a bit bigger than the one on the website, and is an earthy orange. Interestingly, it was probably the softest of all the stones. It polished finer than the Chu-nagura, but it’s hard to say how much finer. It seems to be roughly analogous to the 8000.
Finally we come to the Uchigomori-do. This one was the only natural stone I received, and was a bit smaller and more blue-grey than the one in the photo. Mine has two very visible inclusions of different kinds of rocks, one red and the other grey. It was pretty hard, but not as hard as the Binsui-do or the Chu-nagura-do. This stone, however, did what I was finally expecting the finest stone to do, and that is complete the polish (perhaps I should have just bought one of these stones!). This stone gives the knife edge or side a very fine polish, not quite mirror, that rather reveals the underlying structure of the metal (and any mistakes you made polishing with the other rocks!). So really, this seems to be the most important rock out of the set, and what really sets apart the Namikawa-Heibei stones from the Shapton ones. Shapton makes a 12000 grit and a 30,000 grit stone, but the highest is quite expensive, and I’d be concerned either of them don’t work as well as the Uchigomori-do!
Aside from the stone performance, the Namikawa Heibei stones all came securely glued to a fairly large piece of cypress wood. Personally I prefer the Shapton stones, which come with a base that sits pretty well on a table, and which are a bit easier to soak since the stones are free, but the wood probably prevents the more delicate Namikawa Heibei stones from breaking. The cypress also smells good when you get it wet. The Namikawa Heibei stones are usually a bit thicker, but in general they wear faster, so you probably get about the same value for thickness. None of these wear especially fast though, so it will still be a pretty long time before you need to replace them.
So overall, the Namikawa Heibei stones are pretty comparable to the Shapton, with the exception of the Uichigomori-do, which is in a class of its own. Of course, with the sword sharpening kit, you also get a number of other materials for sharpening/polishing that are potentially useful, but that I haven’t gotten to try out yet! The Shapton are all generally pretty hard, though they do get softer as the grit increases, unlike the Namikawa Heibei stones, which vary a lot. They all take to water similarly, with the Binsui-do being a little more hydrophobic on its surface, which improved as soon as it was used. It’s hard to pick a clear winner, though most of the time I do prefer to use the Shapton, because they are a bit less temperamental, being harder and more consistent. In my hands the Namikawa Heibei do feel a bit more refined though, perhaps because they take longer and are probably a bit finer grit and softer overall. Either one works for the purpose though, and I probably won’t buy another stone until I’ve gone through both analogous stones. The way things are going, I’ll probably wear out the Shapton set before the other one!
When it comes to price, I would say either are pretty comparable, at least if bought as loose stones. Interestingly, the Uchigomori-do cannot be bought separately on the Namikawa-heibei website at a reasonable price, it has to be bought as part of the sword polishing package, otherwise they start at ~$300. The package is not a bad deal for all you get, especially if you plan to make use of all it’s special equipment to make your sword pop (if you have the patience!), but it would be nice to be able to replace the smaller Uchigomori-do separately, since it’s really the keystone piece. JNS sell some Uchigomori-do at a slightly better price, but I don’t have any experience with them.
Here’s the website for the Namikawa stones:
www.namikawa-ltd.com/product/159
Here’s where I bought the Shapton stones
www.leevalley.com/en-ca/tools/shapton-sharpening-stones#ha-no-kuromaku-ceramic-stones
JNS:
www.japanesenaturalstones.com
Here’s a picture of the ones I got:
Since then I’ve made some refinements to how the water drains out of it so it doesn’t leak so much! Inside is a plastic bucket I’ve modified to fit inside, and I am in the process of carving some drains in the wood so water flows better into the bucket.
Anyway, the first few stones I bought were Shapton stones, all synthetic, and I got them in 1000, 2000, 5000 and 8000 grit. These worked well for sharpening knives that were already in pretty good shape, with the 1000 and 2000 being sharpening, and the 5000 and 8000 being for polishing. The trouble I had though was if the knife was in bad shape, it would take a really long time at 1000 to make any progress! Polishing up to 8000 looked good on the edge, but on a large surface, the resulting finish looked a bit hazy, not like I expected.
So the next two stones I got were the Shapton 120 and 320. The 120 has really course grit, so it takes off quite a bit of material, which is good on knifes that have to be reprofiled, or for tools like chisels and axes. The 320, as expected, is kind of between that one and the 1000, so I don’t actually use it that much! The 120 works a bit better if a knife or tool needs lots of reprofiling, but I still wasn’t getting the final Japanese polish like I was expecting.
Finally, I got the Namikawa Heibei Japanese sword polishing kit. It comes with all the supplies to polish a Japanese sword, and I haven’t been able to experiment with all of them yet! I have been able to try out the main stones though, so I can comment a bit on those.
My kit came with 6 stones, going from coarsest to finest. All were synthetic except for the finest stone. They differed from the website in both colour and size for most of the stones.
1: Kongo-do
2: Binsui-do
3: Kaisei-do
4: Chu-nagura-do
5: Koma-nagura-do
6: Uchigomori do
The coarsest is the Kongo-do. The one I received is very similar to the one on the website. Grit wise it felt like it was somewhere between my Shapton 120 and 320, maybe around 200. It is a bit softer though than either, so it wears a bit faster than they do (which is true for the Namikawa Heibei synthetic stones in general). It also removes material a bit slower than the Shapton synthetics, so it takes a bit longer to use.
The Binsui-do I received was different from the one on the website. Mine was more of a blue-grey colour, though of similar size and shape to the white one in the picture. This one was close, but a bit coarser grit than my 1000 grit, maybe something like 800. It seemed to be one of the hardest of the Namikawa Heibei synthetic stones, and was good at sharpening, though again a bit slower than the Shapton.
The Kaisei-do I got was a bit of a strange one. The website one is grey, but mine was light tan. To the touch, it felt rougher than the Binsui-do, but not as rough feeling as the Kongo-do. When used to sharpen though, it actually felt a bit finer than my 2000 stone, maybe something like 3000.
The Chu-nagura-do I received was fairly dark brown. At these high grits, it’s hard to tell how similar or different it is from the 5000 and 8000 I have. It was a little bit harder than the other stones, but not as hard as the Binsui-do, and definitely softer than any Shapton stone. It produced a fine hazy polish similar to the 5000.
The Kama-nagura-do I received was quite a bit bigger than the one on the website, and is an earthy orange. Interestingly, it was probably the softest of all the stones. It polished finer than the Chu-nagura, but it’s hard to say how much finer. It seems to be roughly analogous to the 8000.
Finally we come to the Uchigomori-do. This one was the only natural stone I received, and was a bit smaller and more blue-grey than the one in the photo. Mine has two very visible inclusions of different kinds of rocks, one red and the other grey. It was pretty hard, but not as hard as the Binsui-do or the Chu-nagura-do. This stone, however, did what I was finally expecting the finest stone to do, and that is complete the polish (perhaps I should have just bought one of these stones!). This stone gives the knife edge or side a very fine polish, not quite mirror, that rather reveals the underlying structure of the metal (and any mistakes you made polishing with the other rocks!). So really, this seems to be the most important rock out of the set, and what really sets apart the Namikawa-Heibei stones from the Shapton ones. Shapton makes a 12000 grit and a 30,000 grit stone, but the highest is quite expensive, and I’d be concerned either of them don’t work as well as the Uchigomori-do!
Aside from the stone performance, the Namikawa Heibei stones all came securely glued to a fairly large piece of cypress wood. Personally I prefer the Shapton stones, which come with a base that sits pretty well on a table, and which are a bit easier to soak since the stones are free, but the wood probably prevents the more delicate Namikawa Heibei stones from breaking. The cypress also smells good when you get it wet. The Namikawa Heibei stones are usually a bit thicker, but in general they wear faster, so you probably get about the same value for thickness. None of these wear especially fast though, so it will still be a pretty long time before you need to replace them.
So overall, the Namikawa Heibei stones are pretty comparable to the Shapton, with the exception of the Uichigomori-do, which is in a class of its own. Of course, with the sword sharpening kit, you also get a number of other materials for sharpening/polishing that are potentially useful, but that I haven’t gotten to try out yet! The Shapton are all generally pretty hard, though they do get softer as the grit increases, unlike the Namikawa Heibei stones, which vary a lot. They all take to water similarly, with the Binsui-do being a little more hydrophobic on its surface, which improved as soon as it was used. It’s hard to pick a clear winner, though most of the time I do prefer to use the Shapton, because they are a bit less temperamental, being harder and more consistent. In my hands the Namikawa Heibei do feel a bit more refined though, perhaps because they take longer and are probably a bit finer grit and softer overall. Either one works for the purpose though, and I probably won’t buy another stone until I’ve gone through both analogous stones. The way things are going, I’ll probably wear out the Shapton set before the other one!
When it comes to price, I would say either are pretty comparable, at least if bought as loose stones. Interestingly, the Uchigomori-do cannot be bought separately on the Namikawa-heibei website at a reasonable price, it has to be bought as part of the sword polishing package, otherwise they start at ~$300. The package is not a bad deal for all you get, especially if you plan to make use of all it’s special equipment to make your sword pop (if you have the patience!), but it would be nice to be able to replace the smaller Uchigomori-do separately, since it’s really the keystone piece. JNS sell some Uchigomori-do at a slightly better price, but I don’t have any experience with them.
Here’s the website for the Namikawa stones:
www.namikawa-ltd.com/product/159
Here’s where I bought the Shapton stones
www.leevalley.com/en-ca/tools/shapton-sharpening-stones#ha-no-kuromaku-ceramic-stones
JNS:
www.japanesenaturalstones.com
Here’s a picture of the ones I got:
