Au naturel-Aoto Tanba? (another Ebay mystery stone)

Spin the roulette wheel......Ebay IS interesting, I'll give it that. Mystery stone, looks like ones being sold as coming from Kameoka, Tanba. I named it Tanba?.

Size 220 - 65 - 70 mm, green/brown with very small dark spots and longitudinal striations

Sides and bottom have been varnished with polyurethane (gasp!)

Labels are still present but I have no idea what they say

Spots

Thirsty stone wants lots to drink

Lets put it to work, shall we?

This is where we left off after the amakusa

30 seconds on the Tanba?, lots of mud, nice even scratch pattern

Good dull mirror. A good medium coarse stone.

So, I don't actually use this stone very much. It's a good one but I fear that if I use it up, I won't be able to find a good replacement. A real catch-22. It is reasonably fast for natural stone, not quite as fast as a King 1000 but with a similar grit finish. Soft, muddy and good feedback, it feels like it is working. Easy stone. Needs no nagura.