Awase do Natural Whetstone • #Finish • Splash and go 

Elwin de Veld about Japanese natural stones:

Looking for the right and ideal natural sharpening stone is a long journey: there has to be a perfect match. Although nowadays synthetical stones are very good, Japanese natural stones always have been standing on a pedestral and are mostly used for maintaining the  Japanese traditional steels. The maintaning of your knife is a daily ritual in Japan, where lots of time is in invested and never is forgotten. Japanese natural stones can be only used with clean and clear water to rinse to get the best results. Natural stones often have small imperfections and sizes can be different in reality. The grit is always +/-. It is often said that a natural stone will work harder with a little more pressure and will polish more when softly touched.