Honyama Renge Suita

Dimensions (mm) / Weight

209x77x32 / 1,161g

Performance

Hardness / Fineness: 3 / 4

It is easy to very use, fast, and a useful fineness. This stone is a practical finisher for knives and an excellent pre-finisher for tools and razors. The feedback is chalky yet smooth and the stone engages immediately with the blade. Under pressure it will yield a thick creamy sharpening mud. It will leave an exceptionally clean polish on core steel. The softest cladding materials, such as wrought iron, may have a very faint scratch pattern remaining after this stone. Most people would find the finish to be an excellent stopping point for kasumi and others would be very happy jumping to their finest stones hereafter. The edges from this stone are well balanced between bite and tooth in the 6k range. 

Aesthetics & Other Notes

The stone has a very pure white to cream base. There are no apparent lines or su and the swirled renge patterning seems more prominent on the sides. As you work through the stone the patterning should become even more beautiful. 

The stone is sealed.

Honyama (  本山)

It is easy to get caught up in the precise provenance of certain stones. While it is always preferable to have precise information to a stones source, there are many incredible stones for which the wholesaler or vendor lacks enough information to give a precise origin. I consider it the sign of a good seller to acknowledge when a stone's mine is unknown.