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Tsushima Black

Does anyone feel this is a great stone for mid work? If an edge starts to go bad, one could go to this stone and then a fine finisher? Just curious of anyone’s experience with this wonderful stone.
 
I have a 4 lb brick of which I haven't used for many years. It's a useful stone. However is isn't particularly fast or fine. I have nothing bad to say about it. But it never thrilled me. The suitas I have are generally faster. But you could use it for midrange easily. another issue is the color makes it hard to see the swarf. The color.of.the slurry is whiteish though.
 
I have used tsushima black nagura on a hard awasedo before, I find it a pleasant midrange stone. It does work fast enough and fine enough to move on from but isn't outstanding in either category. I like it a lot for knife work actually.
 
I have one that I can use in the low to mid-range. If I want a full J-Nat progression and the edge is not too bad I can start on the Tsushima w/slurry then on to Suita or Awasedo w/nagura progression.
I think they can very a bit in cutting power, mine certainly is not fast and as Buca stated my Suitas are faster.
 
I have a big Tsushima brick. It is really good for softer kitchen knifes in my experience.
Recently i have started to try the stone with razors as a mid range stone. I am really not sure where this stone fits in an progression the best.
The last time i used it i jumped from a 4k Naniwa Gouken to the tsushima with slurry from a lv5- finisher. I finished on a hard shobudani.
The edge felt like an coticule finish, but a little sharper.
The stone i have is quite slow. I think i need to spend a bit more time on the Tsushima.
It is really fun to use, but i am not sure what it adds to the final edge.

Does anyone have some experience advice to share?
 
My big Tsushshima brick, which I like a lot, isn't really in my razor sequence these days. In my knife sequence, it comes before the suita(s) on the knives that need it, and not just the soft knives. I think of it as a harder and less muddy alternative to aotos.

It's not a fast stone, but I would not call it "quite slow." Maybe make more slurry? Or maybe our stones are just different. Mine is, I would guess, in the 3-4k range, but I am not confident in making such guesses.

I too find it fun to use, which is why I tend to use it even when an SG stone would probably make things happen more quickly.
 
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I have a big Tsushima brick. It is really good for softer kitchen knifes in my experience.
Recently i have started to try the stone with razors as a mid range stone. I am really not sure where this stone fits in an progression the best.
The last time i used it i jumped from a 4k Naniwa Gouken to the tsushima with slurry from a lv5- finisher. I finished on a hard shobudani.
The edge felt like an coticule finish, but a little sharper.
The stone i have is quite slow. I think i need to spend a bit more time on the Tsushima.
It is really fun to use, but i am not sure what it adds to the final edge.

Does anyone have some experience advice to share?

I've heard these stones vary a bit but mine was sourced from So as a bevel setter and works very well on edges that don't need repair. It's a lot slower than the synthetics that I could use but I believe it's much more gentile on the edge and IMO is a viable solution for chip prone razors or for an all J-Nat edge.
I think you may want to try yours sooner in your progression, I would guess that using it after the Gouken would be going backwards as the Gouken produces a polish above the 4K level IMO.
You might want to try it first w/it's own slurry breaking down, then on to a Nagura progression starting at Tenjio or your lv5 w/diamond nagra slurry, then finish & see how you like that edge.
When I work w/mine I never make speed any kind of priority.
I find the Suitas that I have to be faster for mid range work and are pretty much just as gentile, but I often start w/ Tsushima.
 
I've heard these stones vary a bit but mine was sourced from So as a bevel setter and works very well on edges that don't need repair. It's a lot slower than the synthetics that I could use but I believe it's much more gentile on the edge and IMO is a viable solution for chip prone razors or for an all J-Nat edge.
I think you may want to try yours sooner in your progression, I would guess that using it after the Gouken would be going backwards as the Gouken produces a polish above the 4K level IMO.
You might want to try it first w/it's own slurry breaking down, then on to a Nagura progression starting at Tenjio or your lv5 w/diamond nagra slurry, then finish & see how you like that edge.
When I work w/mine I never make speed any kind of priority.
I find the Suitas that I have to be faster for mid range work and are pretty much just as gentile, but I often start w/ Tsushima.
Thank you for your input. I assumed it was in the 5 to 6k level range. It is probably closer to 3 to 4k. I will try to use it as you said, leaving out the synth.
 
I see all the common comments saying that Tsushima Black is too soft for razors and is a better fit for kitchen knives. So I decided to hone my newly restored japanese razor with Tsushimas and observe how it goes. Started with Aoto Tamba but then the middle progression was done with Tsushima Black, the final touch with Tsushima Blue. The first is the usual large soft brick while the latter is a little but very hard one. The razor is a kind of near wedge. I could see that the Black behaved extremelly well - giving very concrete, dense, consistent progression, firm friction feedback. There is a lot of space for manouvering with the slurry and pressure. The Blue one gave excellent final effect, althought it does not look as first class in magnification, not really like jnat but more like Thuri. But HHT proves how effective it is - cuts in both directions with the first touch.
tsush.jpg
 
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