Aiiwatani Kiita Tomae #024

Aiiwatani Kiita Tomae

Mine & Stratum: Aiiwatani (stamped on the face), Tomae stratum.
Dimensions & Weight: 133 mm × 87 mm × 40 mm; 1,018 g.
Form: Semi-rectangular block / Koppa hybrid with sawn side profiles, an angled top profile, and a natural, heavily skin-bearing bottom.
Coloration & Visual Features: Predominantly creamy, pale yellow-beige (Kiita tone) fading into subtle ash/grey undertones across the right quadrant. The bottom displays an attractive, textured dark iron/mineral skin (kawa).

Evaluation & Working Characteristics
Thickness & Lifespan: At 40 mm, this stone has immense depth and mass relative to its footprint (over 1 kg), offering decades of working life.
Working Surface: The usable face is flat and broad enough (87 mm width) for kitchen blades, pocket knives, and edge-trailing or push-cut razor touch-ups.
Functional behaviour:  Lv 3.5 to Lv 4.5 hardness range—firm enough to provide consistent edge control, generous self-slurry under diamond plate leaving smooth semi-mirror to hazy kasumi contrast.

Flaws & Structural Condition
Corner Inclusion / Fracture (Bottom-Left Face): Visible near the stamp corner where a small triangular fissure cuts into the working edge. 
Side Delamination / Chipping: The flank directly beneath the left corner has some stepped, fractured breakout where the stone separated along a natural bedding plane during extraction or sawing.
Sealed Flanks & Bottom: The sides and bottom are sealed.