Is this sandstone any good?

[tess_lawrie_fan]

I have found it very difficult to get or find confirmation that Japanese whetstone manufacturers actually comply with JIS R 6001. Without specific knowledge to the contrary it seems like a reasonable assumption.

Thanks for sharing.

It's quite good to have an educated guess, but... I don't understand. Why they don't confirm they're following the standards of the Japanese Standards Association? Do you have any idea about the reason for such mystery?

For bonded grits 220 and coarser the situation is simpler as revision 13 of the GLGC attempts to show. Most of the standards have essentially the same specifications for these.

That's great news... But although those coarse grits are essential in many situations, they're not the stars of the sharpening world. The Japanese manufacturers could do a bit better.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

It's quite good to have an educated guess, but... I don't understand. Why they don't confirm they're following the standards of the Japanese Standards Association? Do you have any idea about the reason for such mystery?

I suspect a language barrier. Possibly the information is considered proprietary. If you read/write Japanese or think you'll have luck with a computer translator (usually not good for technical subjects) consider writing the manufacturers yourself, and please let me know what you find.

http://www.saicom.info/english/contact.html
https://www.suehiro-toishi.com/mailform/
https://www.naniwa-kenma.co.jp/contact/
https://www.imanishi.co.jp/web/contact/contact.php
http://matsunaga-corp.co.jp/contact/

 

[tess_lawrie_fan]

I suspect a language barrier. Possibly the information is considered proprietary. If you read/write Japanese or think you'll have luck with a computer translator (usually not good for technical subjects) consider writing the manufacturers yourself, and please let me know what you find.

http://www.saicom.info/english/contact.html
https://www.suehiro-toishi.com/mailform/
https://www.naniwa-kenma.co.jp/contact/
https://www.imanishi.co.jp/web/contact/contact.php
http://matsunaga-corp.co.jp/contact/

Unfortunately, I can't read or write Japanese. Don't we have any Japanese friend here in this forum? Anyway, at this point I'm way more interested in the secrecy that surrounds the information than in the information itself. It's a fascinating topic.