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[Name] Naniwa Super Stone [Grit (approx.)] 400 thru 12k [Typical use] all phases of razor honing [Comments] 
The Naniwa super stones have gained quite a following in the razor honing world and deservedly so. These 8x3 stones come in grits of 220, 400, 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 8k, 10k and 12k. The length and width lend themselves to easily doing circles if that is a technique that you use in honing razors. According to Naniwa Technical their super stones are made from white fused aluminum powder, formed by chemical reaction bonding. I've read that the binder is resin based. I suspect it is a polymer resin but I'm not sure. For best results the stones should be lapped to flat with a pencil grid before use. These stones provide a very nice tactile feel when honing. They do 'load up' a bit and keeping a Scotch Brite pad handy is a good idea to rinse and clean them intermittently. These can be used for coarse work in the lower grits such as chip removal and on to bevel setting at the 1k level. Whether honing with the pyramid method with the 3k/5k, with Lynn's preferred 5k/8k or the progressive method, working up through the grits, the Naniwa super stones have proven to be very effective from sharpening to finishing a straight razor. It has been said that Naniwa brought these out to compete with the Shapton glass stone line and that they are softer than the Shapton glass. Considering that these companies are manufacturing these stones for tool sharpening perhaps this softer mixture accounts of the excellent results gotten from super stones with straight razors.
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