Iwatani Kiita Koppa
This is a very hard stone that handles working with all Mikawa and Tomo Nagura quite easily, and it's also capable of putting a top-flight edge on a straight razor.
The size is good – albeit somewhat wider than what most people look for in a stone for hand-held razor honing. Even so – working with this stone that way becomes quite simple after a few minutes.
The top surface was lapped to 600x with w/d paper and right from the very start, this stone performed extremely well. My edges have been very keen and smooth – stones like this are my absolute favorite. Slightly softer stones are wonderful also, but these harder types really sing out to me.
Originally – this stone came with a Kyoto Whetstone Association Jyun stamp in one corner, but nothing that indicated its origin. The skin had that dark black with burn umber coloring with many reflective flecks in it.
Over the years I’ve read some stories about Kawa with this ‘look’. So, naturally, I questioned the original owner and he assured me that, regardless of what anyone else might say, this stone is in fact from Iwatani; that the skin on this stone is typical for Awasedo from that mine and many others as well.
Since we don’t hone on the Kawa or the stamps, that type of trivia has to take a back seat to how the stone performs and this one performs exceedingly well.
Approx. Dimensions: 5.75 x 2.5 x 0.6” / 146 x 64 x 16 mm
Weight: 17 oz / 487 g