What does a full natural stone progression/collection look like?

[OkayMode]

As per the post really - how many stones do you really need (or currently want) to cover your bases when polishing from 4k up to mirror/semi mirror without excessive overlap, and what are your favourite or 'the essential' types of stone in each bracket?

Seeing as we're talking naturals, we can expand this into go-to recommendations for categories such as:

• Creating contrast
• Revealing/burnishing details in iron and wrought
• Edges for cutting
• Pure speed
• Versatility
• Reactive/etching properties
• Aesthetic kasumi

Obviously every stone is a bit different and there will always be outliers that behave completely differently to how they're typically viewed, but lets not overcomplicate things too much.

 

[ReiHamono]

If the bevel is already 4k you can get away with two stones, “coarser” softer stone and a “finer” harder stone.

Just picking two stones off the top of my head I could go from Maruoyama ao suita and then if wanting burnishing detail use Nakayama tomae

However, it’s also possible to use just one stone ie a very fine shiro nagura as it’s capable of starting from that low and going up to a burnished finish with high detail

A variety of finger stones can be a huge asset here as well

For wrought I’ve had the greatest success most often with habiki and jibiki.