Thread: Need some help with wetstone selection

I'd agree, it doesn't appear to be hard in the sense that a translucent or black stone is - it looks a bit shy of that in density. If it's not a soft arkansas, it could still be conditioned to finish a razor, but the technique to use it won't be quite a straight forward and guaranteed as it is with a fine synthetic stone.

The small combination stone looks like it might be an india washita combination, but hard to tell with pictures far away. Keep all of those stones around, you may come back around to them later. I find that arkansas stones that are just a bit coarse can be used like a barber hone once you've got an established edge, and will provide a very nice shave, but you're not to that point with an edge yet - the initial edge can be kind of harsh with the same stone if it's worked all the way to the edge.

I personally like honing on arkansas stones more than synthetics, but have enough of them that one is always what I want. I liked synthetics more at first.

It looks to me like you have mid grit covered and you could use something to set the bevel and a finisher. Those two stones in the back look like silicon carbide combo stones, and they are generally too harsh for razors.

The Shaptons are my current favorites. I have the whole set. I find the 10k is WAY better than the 16k. (go figure) I go directly from the 10k to the 30k. Having said that, if I'm not in a hurry, (Shaptons are splash and go) I can get excellent results from my 1k,4k,8k Kings and then my Naniwa SS 12k. (Which is a much more cost effective option if you don't sharpen a lot of razors)