I visited my favorite hone dealer, Bo-Oku Hones (坊奥砥石工業) and in our chatting, he mentioned he had some stones I might like to see, since I'd come all the way from Yamaguchi. He brought them out, wrapped in ancient newspaper, and I admit to a little jaw dropping.

Here they are:

Not only are they well colored, evenly shaped and pure, with no toxic inclusions at all, they're big.

How big? This big:

These are stones that would sell for well into the thousands of dollars...they were cut back when the miners had the full seam of stone to work with, instead of the odd bits and pieces left over now. When people talk about vintage Japanese hones, this is what they mean--not that the rocks themselves are any different, but there was simply more untouched stone there for the miners. Nowadays, it's more about making the best of what's left, rather than striving for perfection.

These are what we have now. There are some very good stones no doubt (In fact a couple of them will find their way onto this site), but the comparison makes me a little bit sad.