Iman Nagura Stone, 7/8" x 7/8" x 3", Light-Colored, Fine Grit

This should be used only on stones of 1000 grit or finer or it will eat up the Nagura Stone. Use each of the 4 sides equally to maintain its square shape and flatness. Its use is to clean the fine metal particles from a stone after use re-flatten the cutting stone after use and to create the cutting lather needed for fine sharpening. Use it on a wet stone only, as the water will suspend the particles making it easy to clean the stone you are working on with a cloth. If the Nagura Stone chatters when you push it then the stone you are cleaning is too dry or deformed in some way. If dry then wet it, if the stone is deformed then turn the Nagura stone 45 degrees to the work stone and smooth out the rough places. Remember, always clean the entire stone to keep it flat. Most people have a tendency to start cleaning the stone about a 1/4 of the way in and stop or lighten pressure about 1/4 of the way to the end. This will cause the Nagura to create a sway back effect and make the work stone hard to use. A damp cloth is all that is needed to clean the Nagura Stone itself.

Great item to have to clean your ceramic sharping stix

There is a terrific YouTube video of William Ng and his approach to sharpening. A Nagura Stone like this is key with water stones at the finer grits, where you are really using a slurry to polish a sharpened edge.It works!If you are not a woodworker you may not find joy in a truly sharp tool. But if you ARE a woodworker and you like the idea of making shavings with a plane or chisel, shavings so fine they are translucent, then a Nagura Stone like this will help you get there--if you follow the water stone path.Using a truly sharp tool is a joy. Who among us has enough joy?

This item arrived as expected, but what I didn't pick up on from the description was that it is a King Ice Bear stone. It came nicely packed and arrived as expected. It definitely made a difference in the sharpening when I used it with my King 1,000/6,000 combination stone. I'm no expert sharpener, but the slurry it formed stayed on the stone longer than just the water and kept me from having to keep wetting it as often. You could see it pulling the black residue out of the whet stone, which should be helping the stone to cut more efficiently. All in all, nothing too surprising or unexpected, but it just seemed to do exactly what it is supposed to. Can't see any reason to ding it.

Poorly packaged. First one came in broken, second had large chip out of side. I normally use this type of stone to create a slurry to make my stones work better. This is very hard to create that slurry. I only use the slurry on my higher grit stones so maybe this is made for more course stones. At any rate I have a real Japanese natural stone that I use all the time. Only problem is that it is getting very small. Hopefully this will improve with wear

I use this very fine nagura stone for polishing with a higher grit (6000 or more) water stone. Soak your water stone for a few minutes, or until bubbles have stopped coming out, or follow the manufacturer's directions. I dip one flat long side of the nagura stone in clean water (with a little baking soda added. Then rub the nagura on your waterstone, forming a light slurry. Add water as needed while sharpening, use the nagura stone to remove black metal left on the stone (swarf), just dip in water then rub the nagura on the water stone.

The product pictured is NOT the product you will receive. The product you will receive is the YELLOW King 8000 nagura. I own a King, and used it on my white Togihara, and the King stained it. I ordered this, mistakenly assuming that the white nagura pictured would be the one I'd receive. On a positive note, getting a return shipping label took less than 5 minutes.

There are a lot of people out there with opinions on how to use Japanese whetstones. I find this product useful in this way. First of all, don't use it to try to make your whetstone perfectly flat without actually sharpening anything. After soaking my whetstone for at least 15 minutes, I draw a grid on both sides with a pencil. I use the nagura stone in circular motions briefly to create a slurry (water mixed with grit) on the whetstone side I'm about to sharpen. After that, the slurry my knife produces is enough (adding some water with my fingers as necessary). When I'm done, I use it to flatten out the high spots on my whetstone briefly (the places where the pencil marks remain).