Japanese carving block

So everywhere I looked for carving material to review I came across compared to Japanese carving block.  So what was this stuff?  It is very expensive!  I wanted know know what all the hype was.

Here it is.  Just under 4x6 inches.  Kind of cute!  The outside pictures represent the images on a sheet of paper inside.  It also come with a tracing sheet for a pencil transfer.  This little block cost me 21.99 with shipping.  Wow- lots.

You can see there is a thin yellow layer on top, the back is completely white.  Almost opaque.  You can carve the white, but it is harder!

I told my son I'd let him pick an image-  here is a choo choo.  I could not get it to transfer.  It has been years since I had a transferring issue.  Btw- I did no prep work to the block.  So I dug in my pile to find some simple darker images.  They all worked just fine.  So a disappointed little guy, but I will carve him a little choo choo later.

Here is my transferred image.  I got the same results with all transfer methods except pencil, which I don't like. 

So I began with a gouge- I am not a gouge carver, I hesitate some with a gouge.  Look closely at the image above and you can see scare marks on the carving image.

So to the side I wanted to show you: these are gouge marks with a 1v.  Both.  The one on the left if holding the gouge like I hold a pen. The mark on the right is made holding the gouge like a paint brush.  This material is aweful for me and a gouge!

A bit disappointed I grabbed my box cutter- only because that is what I have seen others cutting this material with.

Night and day results.  

Wanted to show some gouge marks so I did some on the face.

Showing the thickness of the block.

The first stamping.  It holds ink well, very well.  The inking is an ink pad issue. I need to get a new ink pad or add ink to this one.

Cleaned up stamp.

This is an awesome product for knife cutters, I don't know about the gouge as it is. Not my tool of choice.

The opaque nature of this material allows for you to see you blade through the material making clean cuts.

I won't be buying this again as other materials are much more versatile.  However, when it is being compared to other products it is truly for the smoothness of the material.  Cuts nice.