Originally Posted by
rgdominguez
The steel that sushi knives are made from is very hard carbon steel. The Shiro-ko or White Steel has about 8% carbon in it and the Ao-ko or blue steel has over 10% carbon in it, much higher than any European steel which have about 1% carbon in them. I think that they would probably tear up the soft European stones. The fascinating thing is that these stones are hard but with a very fine polishing grit, upwards of 12000. I didn't make the connection with razors at first, the obvious is hard to see sometimes! But when an experienced honer I know who has many Belgian and Escher stones in his collection told me that by far he prefers his Honyama Awase Toishi stone to any other hone, the truth dawned on me. I tried it and was amazed at the results!