Our aoto provides exceptional coarse grit scratch removal, pre mirror polishing, adding deep color tone to the bevel, as well as burr reduction and edge refining. This stone easily allows for cross over between coarse to polishing stones like no other medium grit stone I know of.

 

If you're looking to bridge gaps in your stone collection or maybe even remove some stones to make for a more minimalist kit then this stone might be the ticket.

 

This stone is nice to use for creating, or refining, the misty appearance of your Japanese single bevel kasumi constructed knives. I often use it following the King 800x to create a shiny slick mist on single bevel knives. Another great use for this stone is in shaping a hamaguriba (clamshell/convex) bevel on a yanagiba. The soft stone will conform yet abrade just right for the blending of a multi-bevel blade road (bevel).

 

Our synthetic blue aoto is comprised of 2000x synthetic abrasives. This mixture provides quick break down into an extremely fine grit mud that works much closer to 5000-6000x effect than it's rated 2000x grit level.

 

It's a very soft stone and this should be noted. Some sharpeners fear soft stones while I feel they will teach you to use correct technique (AKA - angle control). You will have instant feedback in this regard and will be forced to learn quickly. The lessons learned on a stone like this translate to achieving better edges from other stones.

 

I've used other synthetic aoto stones from other manufacturers, as well as a couple of natural aoto stones, yet none compare to what this stone has the ability to offer. This is the more expensive aoto that we offer. The higher price is due to it's extra large size (width, length, & thickness). I wouldn't sharpen a single bevel knife without this stone in the line up.

 

Requires 30 min. soak time in water before use, however, I believe that it's best to leave this stone soaking indefinitely in your water bucket as it's prone to cracking/splitting if dried too rapidly or even too often (cycles). The surface will become somewhat mushy from long soaking but this can either be used as an advantage for shaping to a hamaguriba bevel or it can be fixed/corrected by a quick lapping from a diamond plate. as lapping/flattening fixes this condition. I recommend lapping under running water.

 

Size -  XLarge - 225 x 95 x 60mm