MASUTA Japanese Natural Sharpening Honing Stone (XXL (H))

I have been sharpening knives for about two years, and my collection of Japanese water stones includes a variety of grits from 220 (Shapton Moss) through 5000 (Suehiro Rika). With one exception, these stones are all manufactured, and I wanted to try a good natural stone. Prices for natural stones vary widely in price, and water stones from Japan are usually very expensive, like more than $200. When I first viewed this offering on Amazon, I thought maybe it was bogus, like some stone from another country being sold as Japanese. Then I found essentially the same stone, at least in appearance and from the same closed quarry, on a reputable Japanese website: Houcho dot com. Their price was comparable, about 12,000 Yen, for a similar size. So I decided to give this Amazon stone a try. I bought the XXL stone with lower hardness than the XXL (H) stone. Note that I am unable to compare the description's hardness (3.5/5 to 4/5), which is called "medium hard", to a corresponding grit or grit range. I chose this stone's hardness because I sharpen knives, not razors, and do not need to get a pure polish on a knife edge. I did want something that would be considered harder (higher grit) than my Rika 5000. This stone seems to fulfill that purpose.The packaging is very nice, with a leather case that holds the stone and a slurry stone (nagura). A purple silicone mat was included, although I found that the mat and stone can slide around if water gets underneath the mat on my Formica counter.The stone has gold characters on one side, but the gold will quickly rub off, so take a picture if you want to preserve the image.My stone did not arrive completely flat, but although some reviewers considered this a defect, I didn't mind, since I always flatten a new stone before first use anyway. I find that manufactured stones often are not totally flat, and some have a top layer that has a coating on it, perhaps a remnant of the manufacturing process. Anyway, my experience is that after any stone is used for a while, it needs lapping (flattening).The stone is very hard, and it removes very, very little metal during use - not surprising to me. It does refine a knife edge beyond what my Rika 5000 gives. I only use this stone for finishing high quality knives, typically Japanese brands like Shun and Mac, although it seems to improve the edge on Wusthof and Henkel German knives, too.I am pleased with my purchase and can recommend this stone at least for knife sharpening. I also notice that Amazon has this same (or similar) stone available in a "B" line, with a lower price for comparable sizes, but the B line apparently has inclusions in it that can cause breakage or chipping. My review is for the more expensive "A" quality stone.Now to digress a bit: I only have one other natural stone, a smaller one that was marketed by Suehiro as a medium grit (approx. 2000 - 3000). This stone is green and although it gives a pretty good edge, it does leave a noticeable scratch pattern. Suehiro's website has a link to these stones, but it takes you to a Japanese Yahoo site that can be difficult to order from, and its price, with shipping and taxes, was just over $80. Suehiro apparently started out with a quarry, and after they began creating their own stones (Cerax, Debano, Rika, and others) they stopped selling natural stones. Maybe the quarry ran out of good material(?). Some time in the recent past, they discovered a small collection of these natural green stones so they sold the set to some Japanese marketer and put the link to Yahoo.jp.

Very good sharpening stone. A good sharpening stone that makes very sharp knives, and I like it very much.

I used to sharpen my knife with 1000/6000 grit combination whetstone. It was quiet sharp but I decide to buy this stone to test whether it can get sharpener. The result is amazing. The blade seems to get shinier and sharpener. I can easily make a push-cut on paper which I often feel hard to do which a 6000 grit stone As a beginner in knife sharpening, I am also able to achieve a close to mirror edge with this natural Japanese stone. The thing I don't like about this stone is that It it is not flat, and it took me an hour to flatten it with a Norton flattening stone. There aren't any indicating number or word etching on the stone to confirm that it is a hard version of this stone. So I am not sure that whether my stone is the normal version or the hard version. Overall I am very satisfied with this whetstone.

I like this stone. I used it to finish a few straight razors, and have been impressed. Its a hard stone, and can handle Nagura progressions if you have some Naguras lying around. I've got some work left to do on this thing in regards to figuring out how to really get the most out of it, but that's par for the course on any new stone - especially on you're finishing straight razors on.It comes with a pretty decent sized tomo Nagura, which just means it comes with a little stone that is the same type of stone, used for slurry. Its a dense, hard stone, and it was a little out of flat when I got it. I hit it with an Atoma 1200 and some 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and it gave me a nice flat and smooth finish.

I have read the reviews on this stone and bought 1. I personally really like this stone. I have a wide variety of stones natural and man-made. I have 17 years of experience sharpening blades and I believe this to be a good buy. Some buyers seem to be upset because they don’t believe it is a true Japanese natural stone. While others seem to have fallen in love with it. For the money it is a good investment because it is a fine grit that is very very dense. which means it will last for years unlike less dense stones that you can clearly see the where after a year. If you’re looking for a natural stone that is certified this isn’t it but it is a good stone nonetheless.