Review on 🗡️ Nagura Stone Honing Stones: Ultimate Sharpening Tool for Precision Blade Maintenance by Brad Blake

First, note that this is not a leveling stone. Nagura stones are used to create mud on the sharpening stone itself, so you will need to match the grit of your Nagura to the water stones you are using to sharpen. If you need to level a concave water stone, there are separate products for this. When used properly, water stones make knives sharper and more durable than any other type of sharpener such as diamond or oil stones. In other words, not only does a knife blade become sharper when properly honed on waterstones, it also stays sharper longer. This is due to the random mixing of the suspension of the cutting material in the medium, and without going into detail suffice it to say that this effect only works when there is at least little, ideally a lot, of suspension on the stone. Otherwise, it quickly clogs with shavings – tiny metal particles that are removed from the blade, and when this happens it eliminates the property of waterstones that allows them to produce the sharpest, most durable edges. It is very convenient for me to sharpen with diamond stones. but I'm learning and moving on to waterstones; and I don't know if it's the relatively cheap stones I'm using right now or if it applies to all types, but below 3000 grit it takes a very long time to slurry. So I decided to invest in a 1000 grit Nagura - the lowest grit I use regularly - and it helped with the slurry. Maybe not as much as we would like, but even a little bit better than nothing. My only complaint about this stone is that it's too hard: like my real 1000 grit sharpening stone, it just won't get mushy without a lot of friction. This isn't really a negative as it means the Nagura stone will last a long time (the attached photos are from around two months of use and there is no visible wear) but I would have preferred a slightly softer stone which is easier to make. Suspension. That's why I gave four stars instead of five. However, it is a useful tool and recommended if, like me, your 1000 grit stone isn't picking up enough chips when sharpening.