Natural Stones Beginner Guide !

Nr. 1 Do not buy your first stone over 200 euro !!!
Buy instead 2 or 3 stone in different hardness in cheap category and try them out first ! See what hardness they are compered to synthetic.


Nr. 2 Mine ( Nakayama, Ohira), Strata (Namito, Aisa), Brand (Maruka)....... Just selling words
I did try many stones now and no of this names guaranty you good stone !!! Some are very expensive just because of the name and not of performance !! 
I have triad Maruka for 800 USD thats perform similar to Atago for 200 USD same size.


Nr. 3  Give your stone good time ! Try it with many different approaches (little water, much water, little slurry much slurry,) try to soak your stone its not dangerous :) !! if its sealed with some shellac.
My favored stones now, i was very close to trow them out when i was newbie at that time :) Now i am very glad that i did not !!! So give it good time 


Nr. 4 Flatten your stone correct !! Look at my flattening guide How to flatten Naturals 


Nr. 5 There is no Grit in these stones ! There are layers. The harder the stone, the harder and smaller particles it will release, the softer the stone the bigger and softer particles it will release.
So for knifes bigger and softer particles is better because they is faster and knife have bigger sharpening surface and pressure is higher to brake these particles and make them finer !! For razors you need smaller and harder particles to its very small sharpening surface and very low pressure.


Nr. 6 For finishing stones:  Hard stone = Slow,  Soft stone = Fast  There are exceptions but very few 


Nr. 7 Appearance ? Karasu, Naniji, Range etc. They are very beautiful and very rare most of them is very good too thats why there are more expensive but not because of performance !!! They do not give bigger cutting power or some extra magic to your stone.


Nr. 8 Suita. stones with su (holes) There can be very good suitas, but i do not recommend them for beginner stone sometimes they trap bigger particles in holes and make some trouble. But they can be faster then non Su stones and very good for tool users or knife users ! But not for razor users, can get some trouble with that holes and dust and other grits !   


Nr. 9 Do not buy your first stone because its RARE !!  Its a very good selling point and they work similar as not rare stones.


Nr 10 Buy your first stone that is very clean in colour and without any lines or dots . On softer stones its less important. On very hard you can feel every bump.



I think that to know hardness of the stone is the key ingredients to peak good stone !
Some tasks need very hard stone like for razors, some very soft like for knifes and medium good for finishing good knifes like Yanagi or Usuba etc. or for pre-polishing razors. But if you use hard stone on knife or soft stone on razor you will be disappointed with your first buy :(