The Aoto Thread

[sparq]

Aoto and Ohira green sharpening stone arrived. I have only unpacked and given them a cursory look. At first glance, I seem to have been lucky with the Aoto. I didn't see any obvious inclusions. The surface seems to be a pretty even blue.

The Ohira is supposed to be from one of the shallower layers. It is supposed to be a softer stone that should fall between the Aoto and my finer finishing stones.

What condition did the aoto arrive in? Smooth and flat or deep grooves and saw marks?

[Pyment]

pretty smooth.

I didn't spend a lot of time looking, but will post some pix later.

[Buddel]

I´m also using the Aoto now since one year. I bought mine here:
Japanese Natural Waterstone Aoto | DICK GmbH - Fine Tools

I highly recommend this stone in the range from 1000 - 2500 grit. With slurry it is more aggressive, then use it more and more only with water, to go finer. So you can use only this stone before you must go to a 6000 grit stone. The stone is soft and must be flatten relatively often, but it gives a very good feedback for the sharpener and works quite fast. For me a best buy.

[sparq]

I´m also using the Aoto now since one year. I bought mine here:
Japanese Natural Waterstone Aoto | DICK GmbH - Fine Tools

I highly recommend this stone in the range from 1000 - 2500 grit. With slurry it is more aggressive, then use it more and more only with water, to go finer. So you can use only this stone before you must go to a 6000 grit stone. The stone is soft and must be flatten relatively often, but it gives a very good feedback for the sharpener and works quite fast. For me a best buy.

Thank you for rubbing it in!

[sparq]

Close-up of my aoto. This is what it looks like after lapping and honing (several dozens of laps). To me, it feels more like a clump of mud than a stone.

[hi_bud_gl]

talk to seller he may take it back?

[holli4pirating]

I got mine. It came from 330. It looks like it may have a crack or red inclusion that runs aloung it length wise about in the middle or the stone. I can't tell if it runs through the whole stone, but it looks like it does. All faces of my stone were covered in what looked like saw marks; lots of ridges. They came out very quickly with a DMT 6c - I mean maybe 1 minute on one of the larger faces. Slurry generated was quite dark, and the stone looks beautiful on the lapped face - it is not a flat color like my Dragon's Tongue and has much larger patterns than a BBW. I have not lapped the other face, and I've not taken a razor to her, but it looks like I lucked out and got a winner.

[sparq]

talk to seller he may take it back?

The seller keeps telling me that I have no idea how natural hones work and I am seeing "deep scratches caused by this coarse stone". Deep scratch my ar*e...

[manah]

I´m also using the Aoto now since one year. I bought mine here:
Japanese Natural Waterstone Aoto | DICK GmbH - Fine Tools

Gábor, I bought my Aoto also there.