First to be shown in the “omnibus” is the typical 8000 grit waterstone finish. This sentiment is now out of date, but when I started woodworking, nearly everyone used waterstones in the hobbyist world and a king progression finishing at 8,000 grit or something similar was a standard paint-by-number suggestion.
I would suggest unless you’re really new and progressive and these types of stones aren’t something you’ve seen, this is your standard to compare other finish stones to. There are finer, and there are more coarse, but there’s nothing in hobby woodworking that this won’t cover.
This stone is the “kitayama” stone sold by imanishi. It’s very inexpensive in japan, sometimes marked up here.
Edge uniformity is decent, but the slurry makes the edge itself a bit toothy.
The stone with slurry dry – the markings on the surface will wear off, but I’ve since sold this stone. This stone works far better with slurry of its abrasive than just with clean water.
If you keep something to level the surface of this stone handy, it’s easy to use and wide for beginners using guides. It will gouge fairly easily, though, and is limited if you move to things like carving.
Typical Price at time of posting (2021): $60.
If you see this stone listed for much more than that, you probably ought to consider what else is marked up. Sometimes that’s an issue of distribution and not retailing, but retailers with prices near or above $100 for a stone like this are generally high on everything. I’d refer to those types of retailers as beginner’s traps – they have catalogues and lots of advertising, and are trawling a net to continuously find new customers.
Of Making by Hand with Wood and Steel 
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