Quote Originally Posted by infamous View Post
You know how smooth the stone is by the feel you get when you run the blade across it. Looking at how it reflects light is deceptive, the same way some synthetic stone may give a mirror finish but not be as good as the dull finish by a fine jnat.
Actually the finest, hardest Jnats will give you closer to a mirror finish if used with water alone.
The kasumi finish comes from unevenly sized particles in the stone &/or slurry creating scratches of slightly unequal depth so light reflects differently off the surface.
The more even the grit, the less haze, again, I stipulate with water only. Using a slurry on the same stone will give you the haze due to different sized particles.