OZUKU URAKARASU

INTERPRETATION OF THE STONE

This OZUKU KKARASU stone is named because of the thin black layer on the bottom of the stone that is medium hard compared to the top of the stone that is hard. This was chosen again mainly as an edge sharpening stone for single and double bevel kitchen knives, as well as for Japanese wood workingtools, kamisori and uraoshi.

A hard stone with very fine grain that produces loose black swarf when pressure is applying to soft iron. The mud produced has a fine silky texture that pushed the finesse of the grain past the 8k range. During edge sharpening the smooth feeling was particularly nice with good ease of use for a harder stone. 

Mainly tested on carbon steel, white and blue as well as ginsan and stryx, with surprisingly good results on all steels. With a bit of mud built up from a 600 atoma or included Nagura the edge was toothy and crispy, with only water on the stone surface the edge became very fine yet kept its bite. 
Overall the edge from this stone is on another level, as I’ve mentioned with previous stones tested I particularly like the type of irregularities found in the surface of this stone for edge sharpening only. 

I tested this stone for polishing on flat surfaces such as kiridashi, Kanna and single bevel knives sharpened with very flat bevels. Though possible I don’t recommend it. 
I felt this stone has great potential with the types of edges it could produce. 
Recommend for those interested in edge sharpening on natural stones.

Nagura included.