Maruoyama Shiro Suita

Size (mm) / Weight

205x75x38 / 1,400g

Performance

Hardness / Fineness: 3 / 4-

This stone demonstrates how Maruoyama built a reputation for excellent workhorse suita. 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

None of the lines cause issues during use - typical of Maruo shiro suita. The stone shows characteristics typical of Maruo shiro - pale grey to slate blue base coloring with golden lines throughout. There is some aka renge poking through on the back side.

This stone is sealed.

Maruo (丸尾山, Maruoyama)

One of the few that continues to be operational, this Western mine is renowned for its soft shiro suita. This mine is also well regarded for its shiki uchigumori (tenjyou suita), ao suita, and aisa-layer stones. Once widely available and relatively cheap, increased demand has outpaced supply making these stones harder to get and more expensive than just a few years ago. All things considered, however, they are comparatively still quite attainable.