Originally Posted by
jgjgjg
ZIB, thanks. So you raise a couple of important points. I don't REALLY care if the stone comes from Japan, or Sheboygan. Actually, I'd be THRILLED if someone came along with equivalent stones quarried in the US.
What I was hoping to pay for was a certain performance. Which leads me to the Suehiro stone (and other reading around this forum). There is a question I have about sharpening razors as opposed to other tools. That is: why would you finish on a stone (any stone) that had a lesser grit than 1/2micron stropping compound? Could you walk me through that? And note my presupposition, which may be entirely wrong: that after the bevel is set (ie, keeness is determined), and steel is chosen (i.e., minimun carbide grain size selected), the only relevant factor in sharpness is grit size--ie, the size of the tooth on the final edge. Or, put another way, any grit larger than the carbide grain size in the steel is not small enough for the 'ultimate' edge. Is that not the case?