Thoughts on Aotos?

[Phip]

I've been looking at aotos for a couple of years and gotten one very muddy red aoto that I enjoy. But it's also thirsty and can be a nuisance because it can take 10 minutes to sustain the mud w/o drying out.

Now I'm looking at getting a somewhat harder aoto. I want a stone that stays moist and gets some slurry w/o much effort. How much hardness should I look for to get those qualities? Or should I be considering other factors instead? As a general matter with naturals, I like a lot of feedback and tend toward softer, easier to use stones. There are some interesting stones out there from vendors, but most look super hard; e.g. AFrames, JNS. What do you all like in aotos and why? Suggestions for how I might go here?

 

[Marcelo Amaral]

If you already have an aoto you like, a suggestion for a bit harder, but still soft soft stone could be a lvl3,5 atagoyama, hideriyama, takashima or oouchi. Also, a harder aoto could be a good idea if you find a nice one.

 

[Xenif]

I think Marcelo made a good point, if you already found your "forever aoto" probably good time to look at other stones that do something different. If you like softer and easier stone, maybe something like a 3-3.5 range suita? My aoto finishes around 3k, if I ever need to go higher my next stop is usually a 6ish k suita.

Why do I like Aotos .... Super Aggressive edge, easy to use, cheaper and easier to find vs you "name brand" mine.

 

[Phip]

Yeah, Xenif, it's the edge quality I'm liking a lot now with the aoto I have and wish to explore some more. I tend to just take most of my knives up to the 2000/4000 grit synthetic or aoto level and call it good. The people I sharpen for have never had knives that sharp before, and will dull them again too quickly, so I'm not often motivated to explore the final .1% of sharpness potential.