David Weaver
I go back and forth on what it costs to get things from dealers in the US, but I don't want to poo poo things reasonable that just don't fit my lens. The reality is if someone is running a profitable business on low volume goods, a markup of 100% (double price) is probably about where it becomes worth doing.

The benefit of those stones (ohira) is they're kind of mellow, so they're easy to use, and they generally aren't scratchy (lots of harder stones can be, and it takes an honest dealer to call that what it is instead of saying that it takes great skill to use the stones). That type of tomae stone usually leaves people with the visual polish that they want, too, and I think that's important (The tip of the chisel can be finished with something else if it's *really* important to get bonkers sharp).