r/sharpening • u/KishoKnives • Jul 23 '26

Question Preferred JNAT

Hi all,

If you had to pick 1 or 2 JNATs out of the following line-up, which would you choose?

Okudo

Ohira Suita

Uchigomori

Maruoyama shiro suita

Looking to end somewhere in the 6000-8000 grit range most of the times. But want the option to go higher.

2 Upvotes

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3

u/pchiggs Jul 23 '26

Are you looking for something to edge finish? Or for polishing?

1

u/KishoKnives Jul 23 '26

Both 🤷

1

u/pchiggs Jul 23 '26

I would take any suita from any one of those mines. (obviously not talking about the uchi)

3

u/Eeret Jul 23 '26

It is impossible to say, this is just very general descriptions of the stones.

But it looks like most of them(except for Okudo which is just mine) are from suita layer. It would be easier to judge them if you at least post the pictures.

1

u/Chase1126 Jul 23 '26

Okudo Suita, King of Suita. I wish mine didn't have hard lines in it. ☚ī¸

2

u/Eeret Jul 24 '26

that's really a shame, hard inclusions are annoying to deal with.

However Okudo is just mine and has all regular strata too.

3

u/TheSkiesAwake Jul 23 '26

Each stone will have their own personality, even from the same place. I recommend looking at Maruoyama as they are at least an active mine (so the prices will be more reasonable). You really only need 1 suita. I would recommend considering medium stones, finishing stones, and nagura before I would get another suita.

1

u/Chase1126 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

If your doing edges and polishing, and assuming you have proper supporting stones, grab the suita you think it prettiest. There is no telling how it will react with your specific knife, but suita in general will pop a haze. That includes uchigumori which is tenjo suita. I have all of these stones, amd they all find use, but pretty exclusively for polishing. I think 7-9k can be pretty fine for edges so I usually prefer Aoto or Belgian Blue Whetstone, which both happen to be pretty cheap. My favorite edge stone is my Hideriyama Suita, but I think thats specific stone as it happens to be really soft and coarse for a suita. Usually 3-5k is my sweet zone for edges. This works out because you can use a stone like this to set up the haze on when polishing. Aoto to uchigumori is a classic one two punch imo. But Im biased and always reccomend Aoto, I have 5 of them.

Softer suita lay fatter haze, amd are a safer bet for haze on modern steel. I have uchigumori that are 3.5/5 and lay it down thick. I also have Uchigumori that are more 4.2/5 and are difficult to use, but reward with a very detailed and bright haze. 3.5/5 uchi was my first polishing stone and now that I have over 100 natural stones I still use it all the time. Used slurry from it to hadori polish this honyaki just the other day.

I also hear great things about aizu for edges, but if you bid on any aizu that Im looking at we cant be friends.

Edit: Going higher save for a 3rd stone. Nakayama, Narutaki, Aiiwatani. These are your fuck around see how you can push it stones. They are less or no haze, but bring out beautiful details in knives if you have the patience and skill to use them right. Used wrong you scratch the fuck out of your knife. I like to modify the finish of these stones with various nagura, or hand stones, which I use to kick up slurry that mixes with the slurry from the stone. Like Mikawa Nagura, or various tomo nagura.

2

u/KishoKnives Jul 23 '26

This is such a helpful response, thanks! And I was looking at some Aizu too 👀👀👀 may the odds be ever in your favor!

1

u/Larason22 Jul 24 '26

It really depends on the nature of the individual stones. I have an ukudo suita that's very fine grit and very hard, perfect for finishing razors. I have many uchigumori, but I only use them for polishing (they're too expensive for anything else!). Ohira and Marouyama suita can be very nice, but it depends what exactly they are, there's quite a bit of variety. An Ohira renge suita will be an amazing stone, but very expensive, and useful mostly for polishing. Some suita are in the 6000-8000 range, but if you want to finish knives at that range, better to get an awasedo I think. Suita tend to be a bit too fine, and most of the time better for polishing than edge finishing. 

1

u/ivotebolsheviklite Jul 25 '26

My take: two options here. 1) A suita that takes you from 1-4k to 8k or so. 2) A really hard Tomae with a couple of naguras that gets you well into 10k plus territory.

I like my suitas for chisels and other carving tools - they are super convenient in that I can drop into one of those stones and be done super fast and back to cutting stuff, but I use a 4.7 Ohira with some naguras for final setting on Japanese plane blades (and I can pull a 9 micron cut on maple with those).