Quote Originally Posted by DireStraights View Post
Lies.

Uchigumori and suita are PRIME middle stones, they cut very well especially the softer and waxy karasu ones. A couple circle strokes and 1k scratches go poof.
Uchigumori is a suita layer. And indeed, suita stones are/were priced for their speed as they were the fastest of any other layer, but not for their finishing qualities. Still, some hard ones, and especially from the eastern mines like Okudo-the most famous, or nakayama/shobu can be excellent finishers too, along with their top notch speed (don't try it on ultra high carbon, high alloys or generally vanadium containing ones, you'll be disappointed; nature has pretty much no stones for these steels when properly hardened).
Other famous suita are the shinden, although slower than the Okudo still the good ones are excellent suita stones, and, Ohira, which aren't as good as the above but people like them I guess. I have also seen some decent suita stones from the famous owner Mitsuhide's mine.
The Uchigumori layer is a paradox in any case, and I'm not sure if it's a unique layer on the Ohira mine or other ones have/had it too. There are people who even get angry if you ask them if the stone existed in other mines, and others who say that this shallow layer did exist in other mines as well. In any case, when I finish the sword, shashikomi within the next 3 months, I'll upload photos of how it looks if some uchigumori thread is active.