Thread: Matching hones to razors. Certain brands work better with certain hones?

Originally Posted by mainaman

try softer Jnat, in general very hard steels really benefit from softer stones, and softer steels benefit from harder stones.

This certainly is the general rule especially when polishing Nihonto & houcho, however, I have found the opposite to also hold true when honing razors. Hard stones can also be abrasive like the Shapton Pro & be faster to set bevels on hard steel rather than say soft Kings. Hard finishers like Asagi also work well on hard steel IME as long as the steel is well forged & not simply brittle from poor tempering etc.