Originally Posted by
JimR
I would say they are equally important, with one condition: the stone must be fairly hard.
Basically, and I might be opening a can of worms here, I think hardness of the stone is more important than "grit" when we're talking Japanese hones. I honestly believe that there's a real, measurable reason for this, namely: the "grit" in the Honkuchi naori Japanese hones is all pretty much the same, it just depends on how much is exposed, and at what speed, in the honing process. So hard hones = better control of exposure.