I have puzzled over the use of natural stones over synthetic stones for some time. I just struggle to grasp why someone would use something that firstly may be a dud and why would you not just buy something you know will work and you know exactly what grit size you are getting.........BUT people sware by the feel of the edge they get off these natural stones so there must be something in it.

Looking at those edge images and images in general of edges off natural stones, they all seem to have the occasional deeper scratch here and there and that got me thinking. The Japanese sushi chef's have a term "the blade is running". It happens when the knife edge gets too polished and instead of slicing into the fish it scates over the flesh instead of slicing in so in this scenario extremely small micro chips are actually desirable.

Now I know razors are not knives and that they are essentially push cutters and not slicing tools but there is some slicing motion going on.

What I am thinking is that these natural stones are kicking out the odd particle that is bigger than the rest which causes small micro chips in the blade edge. The extent of these rogue particles is the difference between a good stone and a bad stone from the same stock. I am thinking that these occasional microchips are helping with the shave by catching hairs before the rest of the blade cuts it. This effect would not happen on a synthetic stone.

What are your thoughts on this ?