King waterstone - is there a way to know what I got at a yard sale?

[Bill Houghton]

I picked up a King waterstone on a wooden base at a yard sale. Is there a way to know what grit I purchased? It's not marked, at least not in English; the base says, on one end, "King," and on the other, something in what appears to be three kanji characters.

[Jim Carroll]

Generally the lighter the color the finer the grit.
Have a look here (https://www.cwsonline.com.au/shop/category/shop-by-brand-king)

[Bill Houghton]

There's a chip on one corner, exposing a light yellow stone - so, pretty fine grit, I guess - 4000-6000, perhaps?

[D.W.]

king's 4k and 6k stones had S-1 or S-3 on them depending maybe on size? at least that's what I can recall.

the 8000 grit stone that became sort of the retailer standard here for a while had a G on it, G1 ?

presumably it says king on it somewhere?

there were some others - imanishi maybe, greenish light colored tint that may not have had any english on them. Kitayama or something was the name of one that I bought two or three times because they can be found really cheap and then I'd forget why I sold the last one. this wasn't recent, but around the time I first started getting stuff directly from japan and realized we were getting screwed on everything in the US with distribution markup. Harrelson stanley's shapton pro 15,000? $140.

Shapton pro cream in japan? $52

Same time.

the orange one was half the cost, too.

The king gold was sold for a lot less than the shapton here, but I don't think there was any difference in price in japan. Japan woodworker sold the kitayama stone for $100 or something along those lines while it was $40 in japan. Most of the stones we saw came in from suhiro, king or imanishi even though it may have looked like there were 20 different brands, and then eventually naniwa, but we got screwed on those, too.

[D.W.]

Courtesy of the weak yen, I see the kitayama stone is now the equivalent of $36.54 in japan, including a consumption tax and the cost of shipping (as in, total price to your door there). Someone tripped the "prohibited item" language in the proxy service, though. I think some of the sellers do that on purpose to try to avoid selling stuff to westerners, but the same thing will be listed by 10 sellers and someone will have given a plain description that doesn't trip restrictions.

403 Forbidden (https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/d1131383654)

The shapton pro cream is $48 at the moment, for the record - at least the first listing is, and the first King G-1 (8000)_ is $45, so at least my statement about similar prices remains!

A quick browse just trolling the yahoo auctions in japan shows (if you have a letter designation)

F-# - 4000 grit
S-# - 6000 grit
G-# - 8000 grit

there are a lot of listings in the US giving different items but just using a picture of one of those for all three, which will confuse anyone trying to decipher that chart. Lazy work on the part of website owners to use an identical picture for all three offerings, but not unique.

[Bill Houghton]

there's enough usage on the face of the stone that any markings have disappeared.

[truckjohn]

I know it's crazy talk, but you could always try sharpening a polished surface. While not perfect, you could probably bracket the grit level pretty accurately.

[Bill Houghton]

Thanks. Good idea.

[NeilS]

I know it's crazy talk, but you could always try sharpening a polished surface. While not perfect, you could probably bracket the grit level pretty accurately.

Yes, just use it and compare the result with whatever stone you have already.

Then write on the side of it with felt pen what you think the approx grit is.

I don't find a lot of difference between #4000 and #6000, but there is a lot of difference going up from #1k or #2k to those mid-range stones and an even greater difference going up from the mid-range stones to #8k and above.

[D.W.]

there's enough usage on the face of the stone that any markings have disappeared.

OK, here's a test you can do that will split the stones into two categories.
1) King Gold - if you have the king gold, it will leave a fairly bright polish on hardened steel. you won't have to question if it's a polish
2) if it's 6000 or 4000, the finish that it leaves on the back of a chisel will not be a polish. I'm not sure how to tell those two apart just in use. In the past, I had the G1 king (8000 grit) and the S-1, i believe, the largest of the 6000 grit stones.

I wanted to save a couple of pennies when I first started, so I got the latter and assumed because sharpening instructions said you'd get a polish that I was doing something wrong. I just remember that because the 6000 is a stone that doesn't cut finely enough to leave a bright polish. It leaves a hazy finish. I'm sure the 4000 stone will, too, and telling those two (4000 and 6000) apart will not be as easy.