Some recommendations.... yeah, I know.

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Newbflat

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So I’ve been out of the knife world for a while and I’m back now. I’m hoping there is a revolutionary new stone that I’m un aware I’ve. I have a need for two corse stones. At the moment I have a pink brick 220 that I have never really liked and just killed my Bester 700. Oh, I have a Beston 400 as well. Mostly I’m trying to rethink my thinning/repair set up. After that I go to a Bester 1200 > Rika 5000> Kitayama> J-nat of one kind or another..... as needed. I’m happy with the Bester 1200 on up but my corse stones have never excited me. I’ve always been a stone person but maybe a plate and sand paper is a good idea.. not sure. Anyways.... if you were looking to start over on the corse end of things for thinning and repair what would you do?

I guess the cheapest set up would be my Beston 400 and and sand paper/plate ... My pink brick is still big and works but I just don’t like it, anyone else think it feels rubbery? ........ I’m rambling.
 
I had a Beston 500 for a bit. Never could get past the thirsty part. If I let water drip on it constantly it was too wet and the blade skated around. If I stopped the water it would be too dry to do anything in about 3 strokes. Hate is not too strong a word.

My favorite in that grit range is the JNS 300. Splash and go, it's a sharpening stone not a polisher. Could raise a burr on a chalkboard eraser. Another I liked a lot is the Gesshin 400, a soaker. Pleasant to use, it dished a bit (no doubt cause it was working) and I wore it out after couple years. Either would serve you well.

I've been playing with some Shaptons lately. Liking them in the mid grits. I've only used coarse grits, a 220 and 320 pro and a 500 glass. a little bit and jury is still out.
 
There’s a new Suisin 300 grit diamond stone that’s largely unavailable in the US. For me it’s the best ara toishi I’ve seen and is literally game changing. But it sells for something like $300 so you need to be doing some heavy volume sharpening to make it worthwhile in my opinion.

Last time I talked to Aoki-san, he said that Korin can get it, but it’s a special order item.
 
JKI 220 is my coarse stone of choice. Softer, super fast, but can dish as it releases a lot of fresh abrasives during use. Really have to use the whole stone surface to avoid a half pipe.
 
The question is ... are you looking for splash & go or soakers? Hard or soft stones?
For splash&go, I would go with a Shapton Pro 120 or a Nanohone 200 for my repair stone, and with either the Shapton Glass 500 (double thickness) or the Nanohone 400 for my coarse sharpening stone. As for soaking stones, I‘d really recommend the Gesshin 400 (if you can swing it, maybe the XL version). Great feeling coarse stone that is fast but finishes very even and above it’s grit rating. The only minor gripe I have is that it is a bit thirsty, which can be stopped by sealing the sides and mounting the stone (as Matus did, if I remember correctly).
 
I kinda want to try Naniwa Diamond 400 for flattening a bevel, but still thinking, do I need that stone (sooner or later I'm gonna have it anyway). Maybe someone would like to try it and give feedback about it?
 
Medium crystolon on king 300. The crystolon is faster but an oil stone. The king is hard, fast, aggressive, and nice to use but starts to struggle at steels in the s30v class and up
 
I kinda want to try Naniwa Diamond 400 for flattening a bevel, but still thinking, do I need that stone (sooner or later I'm gonna have it anyway). Maybe someone would like to try it and give feedback about it?
Pretty sure there are threads on that stone. Mostly negative opinions
 
A splash and go would be nice I guess. The Beston 220 (not Bester) is a different stone that the pink brick. If I remember right it has big holes in it like it’s vitrified foam. I have the Imanishi Pink Brick which is the same as the JKI 220 I think. It’s ok I guess, some people see to really like it. It’s big, cuts reasonably fast and considering it’s grit doesn’t dish too fast... it is quite thirsty as well. That said, I have never really liked using it. For some reason sometimes it feels rubbery for lack of a better term. I just never bonded with the stone. I like the Beston 500 better even with its un quenchable thirst. It just feels better on the knife. That could just be a grit thing though. The Bester 700 I just used up sort of feels like the Pink Brick. They are both very ‘sandy’ feeling stones and the grit doesn’t feel like it’s really braking down very much. The Beston 500 feels like it’s braking down while you sharpen. I guess I have just never been satisfied with any stones under 1000 grit or so, but I definitely haven’t tried all of them that’s for sure.
 
Just tape the surface you sharpen on, get some acrylic lacquer in spray and apply a few coats on all sides and bottom. Problem with thirst will be gone. BUT. The stone will take much longer to dry, so just permasoak it.
 
What about the vitrified diamond stones I've been seeing?
 
Any love for the cerax 320?
Heard good and bad things about it. Some say it's fast and feels very nice for a coarse stone. Others say it is too soft and muddy. Will also depend on your preferences and use case. I only have experience with the Cerax 1000 though, which I think is a highly underrated stone.
 
+1 Cerax 1000...could be the best bang for the buck in its category.
 
For coarse-grit soaking-stones, some forumites here seem to like the Naniwa Aramusha 220 and the Nubatama Black 180. I can't tell you anything about them from my own experience, though.
 

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