botan nagura

can you jnat gurus tell me more about them? i don't use a finishing stone so use as a nagura is kind of pointless for me, i use a dmt fine slurry stone to build mud on an aoto which really isn't necessary anyway since its a muddy stone to begin with. however it might make sense to use a nagura to smooth out after lapping right?

i'm more interested about the botan as a full size as i've read that it cuts really fast. what kind of an edge does it leave? grit level? how is the feedback?

currently i use both a soft and hard aoto as my finishing stones as i like a really toothy edge. just curious about other options, the jnat rabbit hole sure is slippery slope.

Botan is not that fast on core steel. It is very good for polishing cladding. But on core steel or touch up stone it is quite slow.
Feedback with knives i aslo think is not that good. I will more use it for Razors or for polishing

I sort of agree with Maxim, but no not completely. I've got a Botan koppa that is great in the areas he's mentioned, including feedback. Having tried a small number and reading more, Asano are not soft stones and so won't be as immediately user-friendly as softer stuff, but they can still feel great. I have a couple that do, including the Botan. Great when you have a harder (though not too-hard) stone that still feels warm when you put a knife on it.

However, it'd be a bit like winning the lottery if anyone you came across a good full-sized Botan, perhaps. I think they're really good, but their rarety is why I don't think they're mentioned much around here because no one knows. An exception is a former KKFer who had a huge collection and sold off almost all of it, but now says he mostly uses Asano on his knives, though finishing on finer Tenjyo or Mejiro not Botan.

I really like mine and hope I can find a full-sized 1 day.