Premium Natural Sharpening Stone - Whetstone for Knives, Chisels, Plane Blades & Razors - Dual Grit (L/H) - Perfect for Kitchen, Workshop & Barber Use

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.