I contributed to a thread the other day
http://ift.tt/1tH0ECQ(Hone-ID )
with this;
Sebastian
Really nice looking stones.
The red inclusions you mentioned look very familiar. I am not certain that your stone with the red inclusion is a Japanese hone but it is very similar. There is a chance that many of the natural stones that are fine enough for razors from, no matter what country' share some of the same components, that red spotting is one item on the list along with the clays and binders.
The red spots are Radiolarians and the shell that the radiolarian and diatoms leave behind are the secret cutting agent found Japanese hones and others. In Japan they call it "renge" (ren-gay) and some stones are rich with it and some are just spotted like yours. Again I am not saying that yours is a Jnat but it is indicative or late Triassic and early Jurassic sedimentary stones, an era 225million years ago that created wide groups of sharpening stones we all use no matter if they have radiolarians you can easily see or not. I have mentioned these ancient fossils in a couple of articles on my website.
Alex
A few posts further down one of our most prolific contributors added,
Japanese natural stones like we use in honing razors as the final finishing stone mainly come from a small area near Kyoto in a valley known as Umegahata, all of the stones in that area were created about 225 million years ago during the time of Pangaea when the continents were being formed. The sedimentary stone from Umegahata primarily consists of two main ingredients, mineral clays (hydrous aluminum phyllosilicates) and radiolarites (phosphoric acid calcium CaHPO4). There may be small amounts of other minerals and oxides, many that were leached into the stone formations through ground water, but in the better stones their presence is minimal.
The radiolaria provide the grit and the clay the binders, and radiolaria come in many different colors as do the clays. The mixture of these two compounds create fast cutting stones (high grit content) or slow (high clay content) and the hardness of the stones is the result of the geological compression of the stones (deeper under ground harder, shallower are softer). Both harder and softer stones can have a higher grit content just as some harder & softer can have a lower grit content. The amount of grit was determined at the time of origin. The original creation of the stones occurred as micro size windblown dust settled into pools of ocean water that contained rich concentrations of radiolarians, and I quote Wikipedia here.
Mineralogy and Petrology[
edit ]
Radiolarites are biogenic, marine, finely layered sedimentary rocks. The layers reveal an interchange of clastic mica grains, radiolarian tests, carbonates and organic pigments . Clay minerals are usually not very abundant. Radiolarites deposited in relatively shallow depths can interleave with carbonate layers. Yet most often radiolarites are pelagic, deep water sediments.
Radiolarites are very brittle rocks and hard to split. They break conchoidally with sharp edges. During weathering they decompose into small, rectangular pieces. The colors range from light (whitish) to dark (black) via red, green and brown hues.
Radiolarites are composed mainly of radiolarian tests and their fragments. The skeletal material consists of amorphous silica (opal A ). Radiolarians are marine, planktonic protists with an inner skeleton. Their sizes range from 0.1 to 0.5 millimeters. Amongst their major orders albaillellaria , ectinaria , the spherical spumellaria and the hood-shaped nassellaria can be distinguished.
The stones we use called variously, awasedo or tennen toishi are the results of this ancient event, and are unique to this small 8 mile long valley in Japan. There are other unique sharpening stones for razors found throughout the world, but they are unique to themselves, just as the tennen toishi are unique to themselves and there for comparisons are problematic. The uniqueness of the tennen toishi is in the abilities of the radiolarites to breaks into smaller pieces of amorphous silica under moderate pressure while still maintaining much of their abrasive abilities. These friable silica fragments are then able to morph from an estimated grit particle size of 8,000 into smaller particles of 12k, 16k,20k and even into the 30,000 range as the abrasion under pressure continues. No other stone in the world has been found to have the same properties while containing the same higher concentration of friable silica.
As the Wiki article above states, the radiolaria can come in various colors; whitish, red, green, browns and mixtures and combinations of these colors are found in the Japanese tennen toishi. The colors of the tennen toishi are a reflection of their raw materials which are clays and microfossils, nothing much more or less. The beautiful red patterns or black patterns found in some stones are concentrations of these fossils which themselves measured in the 1 micron or less sizes. The patterns of these red radiolaria are not individual fossils but concentrations, the same as in the momji or maple leaf patterns. High concentrations of red radiolaria are just that, high concentrations of the only grit component found in Japanese tennen toishi. These red particles have the same cutting ability as the whitish or the brownish grit particles, they are all radiolarian microfossils.
With all allegorical references aside of who's stone cuts faster or better then someone else's stone, the facts of geology must prevail, some stones have higher concentrations of grit than others, period. If someone has a stone with lots of renge (red particles) that cuts slower than a whitish stone they possess, then the red spotted stone has less grit per weight and more binders. Or vise versa. The red has nothing to do with it, it is the predominance of the clays that overweigh the abilities of the diminutive amount of grit. This will be true with Arkansas or Coticule stones as well. The colors of the stones are just a cursory indicator where as the stone must stand on its own merits as to fast or slow cutting.
Your patience in reading the post is appreciated.
peace, Alx
http://ift.tt/1tH0ECQ(Hone-ID )
with this;
Sebastian
Really nice looking stones.
The red inclusions you mentioned look very familiar. I am not certain that your stone with the red inclusion is a Japanese hone but it is very similar. There is a chance that many of the natural stones that are fine enough for razors from, no matter what country' share some of the same components, that red spotting is one item on the list along with the clays and binders.
The red spots are Radiolarians and the shell that the radiolarian and diatoms leave behind are the secret cutting agent found Japanese hones and others. In Japan they call it "renge" (ren-gay) and some stones are rich with it and some are just spotted like yours. Again I am not saying that yours is a Jnat but it is indicative or late Triassic and early Jurassic sedimentary stones, an era 225million years ago that created wide groups of sharpening stones we all use no matter if they have radiolarians you can easily see or not. I have mentioned these ancient fossils in a couple of articles on my website.
Alex
A few posts further down one of our most prolific contributors added,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamma ![View Post]()
Japanese natural stones like we use in honing razors as the final finishing stone mainly come from a small area near Kyoto in a valley known as Umegahata, all of the stones in that area were created about 225 million years ago during the time of Pangaea when the continents were being formed. The sedimentary stone from Umegahata primarily consists of two main ingredients, mineral clays (hydrous aluminum phyllosilicates) and radiolarites (phosphoric acid calcium CaHPO4). There may be small amounts of other minerals and oxides, many that were leached into the stone formations through ground water, but in the better stones their presence is minimal.
The radiolaria provide the grit and the clay the binders, and radiolaria come in many different colors as do the clays. The mixture of these two compounds create fast cutting stones (high grit content) or slow (high clay content) and the hardness of the stones is the result of the geological compression of the stones (deeper under ground harder, shallower are softer). Both harder and softer stones can have a higher grit content just as some harder & softer can have a lower grit content. The amount of grit was determined at the time of origin. The original creation of the stones occurred as micro size windblown dust settled into pools of ocean water that contained rich concentrations of radiolarians, and I quote Wikipedia here.
Mineralogy and Petrology[
edit ]
Radiolarites are biogenic, marine, finely layered sedimentary rocks. The layers reveal an interchange of clastic mica grains, radiolarian tests, carbonates and organic pigments . Clay minerals are usually not very abundant. Radiolarites deposited in relatively shallow depths can interleave with carbonate layers. Yet most often radiolarites are pelagic, deep water sediments.
Radiolarites are very brittle rocks and hard to split. They break conchoidally with sharp edges. During weathering they decompose into small, rectangular pieces. The colors range from light (whitish) to dark (black) via red, green and brown hues.
Radiolarites are composed mainly of radiolarian tests and their fragments. The skeletal material consists of amorphous silica (opal A ). Radiolarians are marine, planktonic protists with an inner skeleton. Their sizes range from 0.1 to 0.5 millimeters. Amongst their major orders albaillellaria , ectinaria , the spherical spumellaria and the hood-shaped nassellaria can be distinguished.
The stones we use called variously, awasedo or tennen toishi are the results of this ancient event, and are unique to this small 8 mile long valley in Japan. There are other unique sharpening stones for razors found throughout the world, but they are unique to themselves, just as the tennen toishi are unique to themselves and there for comparisons are problematic. The uniqueness of the tennen toishi is in the abilities of the radiolarites to breaks into smaller pieces of amorphous silica under moderate pressure while still maintaining much of their abrasive abilities. These friable silica fragments are then able to morph from an estimated grit particle size of 8,000 into smaller particles of 12k, 16k,20k and even into the 30,000 range as the abrasion under pressure continues. No other stone in the world has been found to have the same properties while containing the same higher concentration of friable silica.
As the Wiki article above states, the radiolaria can come in various colors; whitish, red, green, browns and mixtures and combinations of these colors are found in the Japanese tennen toishi. The colors of the tennen toishi are a reflection of their raw materials which are clays and microfossils, nothing much more or less. The beautiful red patterns or black patterns found in some stones are concentrations of these fossils which themselves measured in the 1 micron or less sizes. The patterns of these red radiolaria are not individual fossils but concentrations, the same as in the momji or maple leaf patterns. High concentrations of red radiolaria are just that, high concentrations of the only grit component found in Japanese tennen toishi. These red particles have the same cutting ability as the whitish or the brownish grit particles, they are all radiolarian microfossils.
With all allegorical references aside of who's stone cuts faster or better then someone else's stone, the facts of geology must prevail, some stones have higher concentrations of grit than others, period. If someone has a stone with lots of renge (red particles) that cuts slower than a whitish stone they possess, then the red spotted stone has less grit per weight and more binders. Or vise versa. The red has nothing to do with it, it is the predominance of the clays that overweigh the abilities of the diminutive amount of grit. This will be true with Arkansas or Coticule stones as well. The colors of the stones are just a cursory indicator where as the stone must stand on its own merits as to fast or slow cutting.
Your patience in reading the post is appreciated.
peace, Alx
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