Thread: Guangxi Hone

Soft Arkansas at naturalwhetstone.com

You need to have a fairly coarse diamond hone to keep it "awake". NW's softs are fairly open matrix and coarse cutting, and some others are not.

The multicolor softs are usually pretty coarse, too, but you might as well get one that you know is good when they're only about $30.

You need to use a medium type of oil (like norton honing oil or a mineral oil) with a coarse stone like that, or a water soluble oil with a fair amount of viscosity to keep the stone particles from settling into the surface.

Binsui are apparently inconsistent. Mine sets a bevel fine, but I've heard others say they had one that was too hard and didn't cut well.