Thread: A green brick...

Just got this Green Brick.
Naniwa Aotoshi 2000 Grit

Golly. The logo on the box has a
shrimp on it but the hone is no
shrimp. It very much cleans up
an edge after setting a bevel with
a Norton 1K and eases the move
to finer hones much more than I
would have expected.

It is soft so keep a lapping solution
handy.

It also does a grand job on kitchen knives.

so is this the so called "green shrimp" i've been hearing about?

Nice stone!

I think the green shrimp might refer to the Chosera 1k? Thats a pretty popular stone right about now!

those are very popular for knives, very soft stones.

I'm familiar with the Naniwa Choseras and Superstones. I know nothing about the Aotoshi line other than knowing of its existence and now seeing a photo of one. What are the differences/similarities with the other two lines?

The big kanji on the box say 'Green Whetstone Stone', in case anyone was wondering.

The kanji actually says "blue hone," the weird conflagration of green and blue is odd in Japanese, but "ao" actually means blue. It's also "aotoishi" not "aotoshi." This particular stone is naniwa's attempt to make an artificial Aoto, meaning a fast, soft, mid to rough stone for knives.

Never tried it though.

Thanks for sharing. I learned that the first kanji is used for blue / green. Since the stone is described as being green, I assumed that's what they meant. Trust the Japanese to make everything ambiguous

Originally Posted by Bruno

Thanks for sharing. I learned that the first kanji is used for blue / green. Since the stone is described as being green, I assumed that's what they meant. Trust the Japanese to make everything ambiguous

It's the most infuriating thing..."ao" means the color we call blue except when it refers to fruit and traffic lights, which are empirically green ("midori," in Japanese) but called "ao". Why? You got me.

Originally Posted by JimR

It's the most infuriating thing..."ao" means the color we call blue except when it refers to fruit and traffic lights, which are empirically green ("midori," in Japanese) but called "ao". Why? You got me.

Perception of color is to an extent effected by society and language. Naming a specific color makes distinctions between it and similar colors appear stronger to people. Many languages also have different numbers and names for colors. The lowest number of color names is 3, being light dark and red.

As that is a rather bluish green where the cut off between blue and green could be a factor. Or it could just be idiosyncratic language things.