Praise for the Naniwa Omura 150

[Magnaminous_G]

I love this stone. Thanks to knifenut for suggesting this stone to me! I've liked it since I started using it a few months ago, but dealing with someone else's abused, bent, warped, unevenly-beveled, butter-knife-dull 8" chef's knife really showcased just how fast and well it cuts. The Omura is aggressive, muds quickly, and dishes quickly, typical of this type of stone. I'll say it again, it is aggressive. Just picking this stone up out of the water is painful to the touch (at least with wet fingers). After straightening my friend's ill-used knife, I got to work putting a new bevel on, and the Omura established it in no time. I am thoroughly impressed with how well this stone works, and I think it's suitable for reprofiling on the vast majority of knives. Maybe some of the really wear resistant steels wouldn't fare as well, but it did the job quickly and with flying colors last night. It requires occasional flattening, though, but that's okay. It responds well to the DMT XXC continuous plate. Instead of rinsing the mud off, I just kept the surface splashed with water and let the blade and the water deal with excess mud. That seemed to work well. Two thumbs up.

 

[Magnaminous_G]

Update: I used the Omura to put a new tip on a coworker's paring knife last night. It literally took just a few minutes. The tip was completely broken off with about a 1/4" flat section on the top. I brought the spine down to meet the edge so that it wouldn't chance the edge profile. Done in no time. Awesome stone.

 

[Jason B.]

It's a good entry to coarse waterstones and thanks to all that mud it can polish to a bit finer of a finish making a jump to a 1k stone easier. Works nicely on tool steels too.