Ashitani Renge Suita

Size (mm) / Weight

205x75x34 / 1,280g

Performance

Hardness / Fineness: 3 / 4-

Keeping with the reputation of the mine, this stone is soft, fast, and not overly fine. The feedback is pleasantly chalky and the stone will work up a fair amount of mud with pressure. The smooth sharpening feel and terrific tacticle feedback makes this an excellent choice for very hard steels, honyaki blades, or mild steel claddings. It is also an exceptional general purpose kasumi stone leaving a strong contrast and a beautiful, even pearlescent finish. This stone is very easy to use even for the novice but has characteristics that will please the enthusiast as well. It makes for a suitable stopping point on its own and also a great bridge between midgrit stones and finer polishing stones.

The edges produced by this stone are clean, toothy, and not overly refined despite being noticeably finer than midgrit stones. Those that prefer softer sharpening feedback would love this stone. While suitable for razors or other tools, I think this stone is best utilized with kitchen knives.

There are no lines are su to be concerned with and the entirety of the stones surface can be uses with ease.

Aesthetics & Other Notes

This stone has a cream base color and is packed with swirls dense blue, purple, and red renge - typical of the mine. The bottom 5mm or so turns red, yellow, and orange another sure sign this stone is true Ashiya. There are several large pockets of su located in the bottom 6mm of stone height. It is probable that the stone will be of lesser quality in this area. The price reflects that there are "only" 29mm of stone without line or su. 

This stone has been sealed with traditional cashew lacquer. The stone is stamped on one side and comes with the original retail box and sticker.

Ashiya (芦谷, Ashidani, Ashitani)

A Western mine known for producing soft and manageable suita. Stones from this mine are extremely uncommon.