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Put 4 non-slip rubber feet in the aluminium base of the shiro suita.

The first pic of very out of focus. My old phone only has a 2MP camera 😅
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Nakayama Tomae Maruka

The speed can really give my Okudo suitas a run.

Two sided. One side is hard and the other side is borderline self-slurrying. Both are very fine.
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It can cover up 1k scratches and provide a bright kasumi.
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Or a mirror finish after a full progression (not as mirror as the mizuasagi, but close).



Are these the king of JNats? I feel mine is a refined version of Okudo suita. It has the speed while provides a buttery smooth sharpening feeling.
 
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Child’s play in the scope of this thread, but a fun one - finer, will slurry with some effort, but once you get a proper mud going by far the smoothest, easiest going finisher I have. Comparable in fineness to some hard ozuku asagi, but couldn’t be more different in use. Looks kinda cool with red, green, some faint blue and pink blushes across the stone. There’s a huge pink streak in it about halfway down I’m hoping to get to in this lifetime. An old barber stone, so quite narrow, but I really don’t mind the size - makes it easier to use the whole stone. Unknown pedigree, but plenty interesting. +1 to @refcast and his mystery stones.
 
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@Pie

kinda miss that one. . . note the chalky look when dry -- those are speedy stones. The very vivid, saturated colors when wet are usually stones that slurry quick. Pink and green stones are usually muddier stones, too, or at least ones with a smooth clay feel, which helps a lot with finer polishes. Lastly, the fineness of the stone can kinda be told by the surface roughness . . .barely I guess. Kinda hard by pictures to explain. Kinda like looking at an image of sandstone vs a finishing stone -- the porosity and grain size.
 
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since last we spoke...

left column:
Nakayama Suita - just got this one, a quick test and it does what it's supposed to. hard but doesnt feel it, black swarf that accrues a lot faster than you'd expect, fine edges.
Nakayama Maruka Tomae - after @JDC showed off one of these, I uh... had to have one from the same batch. In all honesty, haven't even tested this one yet. Stunner in person though. This came from Carbon if you're looking...
Shoubudani Tomae - nice slightly harder example and this is why I love these stones. they are not my absolute favorite stones BUT you get a lot for your money. great edges, nice contrast, this one being a bit harder doesnt make as much mud as some other ones Ive had but still very easy to sharpen on. all for barely more money than some synthetics.

right:
Ohira Shiro Suita - got this one off BST & originally from Watanabe. love this stone. brutal, brutal edges, and a good polisher to boot. this is what I think of being a 'typical' great JNAT. it just does everything and of all of my suitas this one is my favorite edge stone. I like it as a polisher, but it's not as easy as some other suitas I own
Maruoyama Tamagoiro Sunashi Suita - Cool little stone; kind of a Maruo version of a fine finisher I guess. Which means it's still muddy af compared to the Aiiwa/Atago/Naka stuff for its fineness, which makes it super easy to use.
Maruoyama Shiro Suita - this stone is just the best. super easy to polish, amazing edge, the prices are still reasonable for what you get. this one is over a kilo and the only stone I like better is an Ohira Renge Suita that is just a bit faster and a bit of a more convenient shape (wider, longer but sadly shorter)
Maruoyama Shiki Uchigumori - Nice stone, but I don't use it much tbh. Kind of overlaps with my Maruo ao suita I guess? I should use it more, it was a lot of stone for the money. Muddy but not quite like the shiro suita. Leaves a great finish too.
Aiiwatani Asagi - got this from Bernal, listed as a level 4 hardness and 4-4.5 fineness which I think is fair. polishing on this stone is doable, just takes some patience/skill. I dont usually polish on this stone just because I tend to like a bit hazier finish than mirrored, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this stone for edges. Probably finer than a lot of folks around here would like, but it works great for me
Atagoyama - This was called "HUGE" by Maksim, and he rated it 3.5 hardness. I have limited time on this stone, but so far I like it a lot. Finish is contrasty and the edge is amazing. Also I cannot imagine that I could ever use up this stone in my lifetime, and the surface is so big that it makes polishing a breeze


and actually I forgot to add a little 600g Shoubudani I got from Bernal but in all honesty I dont have many miles on it even though it's a nice softer/very muddy stone.
 
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since last we spoke...

left column:
Nakayama Suita - just got this one, a quick test and it does what it's supposed to. hard but doesnt feel it, black swarf that accrues a lot faster than you'd expect, fine edges.
Nakayama Maruka Tomae - after @JDC showed off one of these, I uh... had to have one from the same batch. In all honesty, haven't even tested this one yet. Stunner in person though. This came from Carbon if you're looking...
Shoubudani Tomae - nice slightly harder example and this is why I love these stones. they are not my absolute favorite stones BUT you get a lot for your money. great edges, nice contrast, this one being a bit harder doesnt make as much mud as some other ones Ive had but still very easy to sharpen on. all for barely more money than some synthetics.

right:
Ohira Shiro Suita - got this one off BST & originally from Watanabe. love this stone. brutal, brutal edges, and a good polisher to boot. this is what I think of being a 'typical' great JNAT. it just does everything and of all of my suitas this one is my favorite edge stone. I like it as a polisher, but it's not as easy as some other suitas I own
Maruoyama Tamagoiro Sunashi Suita - Cool little stone; kind of a Maruo version of a fine finisher I guess. Which means it's still muddy af compared to the Aiiwa/Atago/Naka stuff for its fineness, which makes it super easy to use.
Maruoyama Shiro Suita - this stone is just the best. super easy to polish, amazing edge, the prices are still reasonable for what you get. this one is over a kilo and the only stone I like better is an Ohira Renge Suita that is just a bit faster and a bit of a more convenient shape (wider, longer but sadly shorter)
Maruoyama Shiki Uchigumori - Nice stone, but I don't use it much tbh. Kind of overlaps with my Maruo ao suita I guess? I should use it more, it was a lot of stone for the money. Muddy but not quite like the shiro suita. Leaves a great finish too.
Aiiwatani Asagi - got this from Bernal, listed as a level 4 hardness and 4-4.5 fineness which I think is fair. polishing on this stone is doable, just takes some patience/skill. I dont usually polish on this stone just because I tend to like a bit hazier finish than mirrored, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this stone for edges. Probably finer than a lot of folks around here would like, but it works great for me
Atagoyama - This was called "HUGE" by Maksim, and he rated it 3.5 hardness. I have limited time on this stone, but so far I like it a lot. Finish is contrasty and the edge is amazing. Also I cannot imagine that I could ever use up this stone in my lifetime, and the surface is so big that it makes polishing a breeze


and actually I forgot to add a little 600g Shoubudani I got from Bernal but in all honesty I dont have many miles on it even though it's a nice softer/very muddy stone.
Very cool collection! I bet you have more JNats in the closet, lol. IMO your Nakayama tomae is the most beautiful one from the batch.
 
I fear that I have become excessively fond of the Ohira Renge Suita. I just love everything about them. The feel when sharpening on them. The smell. The sharpening results. The look. So, somehow, I wound up with 3 of them.
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The middle is the newest member of the family.

This excessive group did not come about because of a collector mentality. The first was the one on the right. I loved everything about it except the shape and the wobbliness. The wobbliness I cured by pouring epoxy, but the shape...I like to sharpen, and especially hone razors, in-hand, and my hands, while large, are not large enough to do it with that stone.

So I got the stone on the left. Paid a pretty penny for it, too. At last, I would have my perfect Ohira suita. Except it's so perfect that it's incredibly fine. Great pre-finisher for razors, and I love it, but you're not going to get a perfect toothy knife edge on it.

So, the new one is Take 3. Haven't tried it out yet, but I have high hopes for it, as both a perfect shape for honing in hand, and a creator of toothy kitchen knife edges. We'll see. Even if it's not that, I'm sure I'll find things to love about it, because these stones seem to do that for me.
 
I fear that I have become excessively fond of the Ohira Renge Suita. I just love everything about them. The feel when sharpening on them. The smell. The sharpening results. The look. So, somehow, I wound up with 3 of them.
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The middle is the newest member of the family.

This excessive group did not come about because of a collector mentality. The first was the one on the right. I loved everything about it except the shape and the wobbliness. The wobbliness I cured by pouring epoxy, but the shape...I like to sharpen, and especially hone razors, in-hand, and my hands, while large, are not large enough to do it with that stone.

So I got the stone on the left. Paid a pretty penny for it, too. At last, I would have my perfect Ohira suita. Except it's so perfect that it's incredibly fine. Great pre-finisher for razors, and I love it, but you're not going to get a perfect toothy knife edge on it.

So, the new one is Take 3. Haven't tried it out yet, but I have high hopes for it, as both a perfect shape for honing in hand, and a creator of toothy kitchen knife edges. We'll see. Even if it's not that, I'm sure I'll find things to love about it, because these stones seem to do that for me.

my favorite stones as well. I own 3 Ohira Shiro Suitas, though 1 of mine is sumi not renge.

if you are finding them too fine, my suggestion is to make a bigger jump from your last stone. if I want an angry, angry edge, sometimes I will use a 1k stone and then go to a finisher directly, but I will admit even the finest of my stones are not too fine for my taste, including my hard Aiiwatani asagi or the new Nakayama kiita I picked up
 
if you are finding them too fine, my suggestion is to make a bigger jump from your last stone. if I want an angry, angry edge, sometimes I will use a 1k stone and then go to a finisher directly, but I will admit even the finest of my stones are not too fine for my taste, including my hard Aiiwatani asagi or the new Nakayama kiita I picked up

That's a really good idea, and I will try it out.
 
f you are finding them too fine, my suggestion is to make a bigger jump from your last stone. if I want an angry, angry edge, sometimes I will use a 1k stone and then go to a finisher directly, but I will admit even the finest of my stones are not too fine for my taste, including my hard Aiiwatani asagi or the new Nakayama kiita I picked up

OK, that worked really well, starting with a Naniwa 800 on a TF Nashiji petty, and jumping straight to the finest of those Ohira Suitas. Great edge, super-keen with just enough rasp. I'm on board. Now to try the most extreme version, almost, starting with a Sigma 1000 (a nasty stone if ever there was one), and jumping straight to a Nakayama Tomae razor pre-finisher. If I don't survive it, remember me.
 
OK, that worked really well, starting with a Naniwa 800 on a TF Nashiji petty, and jumping straight to the finest of those Ohira Suitas. Great edge, super-keen with just enough rasp. I'm on board. Now to try the most extreme version, almost, starting with a Sigma 1000 (a nasty stone if ever there was one), and jumping straight to a Nakayama Tomae razor pre-finisher. If I don't survive it, remember me.
I jumped from sp1k to an ultra final finisher, and the edges were beyond comprehension. Two very light sweeps at ~30-40 degrees per side, anything more than that the magic is gone.
 
Might have gone a bit overboard for the stone, but it was a fun project and definitely increases usability. Mizukihara Namazu koppa leveled with (red) resin and mounted to a piece of katalox (bowl blank that I’ll pretty surely never turn) with a rubber base. The wood is unfinished, but got a coat of George’s Club House wax. The whole thing sits about 3.5” off the counter and sticks to the solid surface countertop like glue!
 

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two absolute monsters showed up today:

Ohira ao renge suita & Okudo suita. I havent gotten a chance to test the Ohira but this Okudo may be the best stone Ive ever used.

by the way it's hard to find info on ao renge stones and I had heard that maybe the renge wasnt really blue but on this stone it's really, genuinely blue. there are two little patches of actual black renge on the stone and it makes it even more apparent that the other renge are just straight up blue. who knew.

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