OHIRA SUITA

INTERPRETATION OF THE STONE

When you first put a knife to a stone you immediately get a sense of what the stone will be like. This Ohira Suita was a bit of a surprise, a fine stone in the 6k-8k range, with very good cutting speed and strong polishing qualities, with the type of tight texture I love, in the middle of the stone that slightly grabs at your edge when passing over it.

I find this characteristic in natural stones to produce exceptional sharpness on edge. both fine and with good tooth.

For polishing this stone is best used with very little water, starting a thick black slurry with the soft iron that will act as a paste like mud that helps the blade easily glide over the stone giving a bright polish to the steel and a light detailed soft iron.

This Ohira is a medium hard stone that has one area being a bit soft and smother than the slightly harder area. But going over the entire stone with a blue 1 Yanagiba iron clad and white 1 Honyaki Yanagiba I found very little noticeable difference in feel and cutting speed across the entire stone.

Over all a wonderful stone that is quite versatile for both polishing and edge sharpening, Single and double bevel knives as well as Japanese woodworking tools.