Opinions on some stones

[KarlMaldensNose]

Living in Canada poses some challenges when it comes to knives and gear. Not many stones to be had up here (yes, I do know about and love Paul's), but I found this Canadian site with some good looking prices. But for some reason I'm skeptical about the brands or lines of stones sold there. I'd really appreciate it if some of you guys "in the know" would quickly browse the page of stones offered and give me the general skinny on those brands. Thanks.

For those who don't want to link, here's some of the names and grits:

-- Masahiro (180, 600, 1000, 1500, 3000)
-- Suehiro (220/800, 240/1000, 1000, 1500, 1000/3000)
-- Masamoto (1000, 6000)
-- Kasumi Hidemoto (1000/1500, 1500/3000, 3000/8000)
-- Naniwa Lobster (800, 1000, 1200, 10000, 12000)

I do also have the option of Naniwa Choseras and Super Stones from another store and probably will eventually just end up mixing and matching from those lines, but they're very expensive in Canada and these other brands I'm investigating seem reasonabley priced. Thanks again.

 

[Jason B.]

I've heard the Suehiro stones are good, I'll be getting a Suehiro Rika 5k soon to bridge the gap between my Arashiyama 1k and kitayama 8k.

From what I can tell so far waterstones work in two ways at higher grits. The first and IMO better way is the muddy stone, as you work the stone it creates a mudd that keeps the cutting action consistent and smooth feeling. The second is what I call a build-up or burnishing type, there is no mudd created and the removed metal sticks to the stone. The more the metal build up the finer the scratch pattern gets, its a very nice quality but the effects of burnishing don't really appeal to me. So far I know the kitayama 8k and Naniwa 10k, 12k to do this. I don't know of any muddy high grit stones so its a issue I just deal with.

Theres no US stores that ship to Canada?

Bluewayjapan and metalmasters on ebay would be worth checking too.

 

[KarlMaldensNose]

That 1 to 8 grand seems like a high jump for someone like you... but then again I guess you have the chops to pull it off. Anyway, I know what you mean regarding the burnishing effect and its something I'd like to steer clear of if possible. That's one of the reasons I was asking about these stones that are unknown to me. So many bloody brands... and divisions of various brands. Like, is Suehiro Rika different than plain Suehiro? Who knows.

And yeah, almost every store delivers to Canada, but I've been getting tagged lately on every order with a 13% duty fee plus $8 processing... and that's on top of the extra shipping they charge for Canadian orders (sometimes up to $30, when in reality it doesn't even cost half of that)... oh yeah, and there's also the jacked up exchange rate PP or Vi$a charges. It's depressing. To give some context and perpective, the M4 Military, which cost most Americans about $200 total, set me back well in excess of $300 CND when all was said and done. So obviously I'm always looking for domestic options.

 

[Jason B.]

Wow, that sucks. didn't know it was that costly. It would probably cost less for me to bring'em to ya, lol!

Yes, waterstones can make your head spin I know mine is still spinning. My 1k should be here tomorrow but I also have a natural Aoto (2-3k or 3-5k, hard to tell) and Awase To (8-10k, closer to 10k) that I can use before the 8k. Though the kitayama is not my type of stone it works really well and finishes around 10k-12k.

From what I've read King stones seem to be one of the few that work like a natural and create mudd. There not the best stones though

Choseras are said to feel the most like a natural but I don't know if they work like the super stones or not. I've never heard of the naniwa lobster stones either, I thought it was the super stones at first but my 12k was white not red/pink.