Jnat - Japanese Natural Whetstone - Ohira Uchigumori (Kyoto)

What is Uchigumori whetstone?

Uchigumori is a Japanese natural whetstone mined in Ohira, the vicinity of Kyoto. They are very fine finishing stones for sharpening, basically aimed at sharpening Japanese swords. These beautiful-looking stones allow you to achieve a distinct Kasumi (hazy-looking) finish for your single edged Japanese knives as well as exquisite sharpness.

Any Uchigumori stone can be utilised to acquire the above result, but technically it can be categorised into 2 types - Habiki (soft type for the core steel) and Jibiki (hard type for the cladding steel). Those that are crashed into small pieces are commonly called finger stones, having different names as Hazuya and Jizuya.

Why our Uchigumori reasonable?

Uchigumori in perfect condition is usually traded at 5 to 10 times higher price, yet we brought up ones in imperfect condition (commonly known as Koppa). They have rough surface which requires substantial amount of time for flattening as well as streaks and cracks.

We treat every aspect of inconvenience for sharpening and processed them into rectangular stones, just like the brand new natural stones we sell. If you don’t mind the imperfect appearance and necessary avoidance of streak lines when sharpening, these Uchigumori whetstones do help get the same result as the pricy alternatives.