Tsushima Black Hones -

I'll try to be brief, I always have trouble with being brief when talking about stuff like this.

Eons ago, I got a tanba aoto as part of a japanese progression (for tools). In fact, I had at least two, maybe three of them.

Never liked it. It was the greasiest sloppiest stone I've used. Not very fast, and with the right touch it was almost a finisher. Never tried it for razors.

My favorite semi-finishers for razors are stones that are too soft or too coarse to be good finishers. Like okudo suita (that is really fast and leaves an edge just on the doorstep of finishing), or a narutaki/nakayama suita (not sure of the mine, no stamp) that I have that is great for woodworking tools.

I have super finishers covered, but I'd always like to find a good mid-grit stone that's not soft like tanba.

So I ordered one of the large black Tsushima hones from Takeshi Kuroda (who knows where it is at this point, I ordered it last week) as a prefinisher.

Anyone bought or used one? I'll post back here once I get it, though I know there is some variation in these and I can't exactly say "this hone is X hard and Y smooth and Z fine", because the next one probably won't be the same.