Utopian,

Mate, I find the naniwa SS 10k to be a very hard stone indeed. Now lets be clear, I am inexperienced at honing (6 months roughly), But I used a clay based king 6k and I got an edge you could shave with from the 6k. True. Then I go to the 8k to polish, and supposedly the 10k to finish the perfect edge. Not so for me with the Naniwa SS 10k, This problem is 75% poor technique, but if the clay based Ice Bear can give me that extra 25% well I'll give it a go. The Ice Bear 10 K comes with a nagura stone too, so....I'll report the results when I get them. Cheers, Bob