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There are shoubu stones all over the map in terms of particle size, color, size, softness/hardness, and in feel. Some of them have scratchy particles (but the same is often true of other mine stones,...

Ditto that.

Clear water, no lapping for a while. That should give a very good sense of the base stone. No spurious nagurious putting scratchy cutting particles on the stone.

A good shoubu...

Natural stone particles leave more stuff on the edge that needs to come off with the strop. It's true with razors, knives, tools, etc. They gain more from the use of a strop than does an edge with...