How soft is the Rika? and what middle stone do you use?

[Matthew N. Masail]

I'd like to get a middle stone. I tend to like the smooth and fast softer stone to the very hard ones.
I've read everything I could find on the Rika 5000, but it leaves me wondering... how soft is it really? king 1000? or just softer than a ceramic but not too bad ? I saw a video and it's sounded quite ceramic.


another one is the Suehiro 3000 Kouga, has anyone tried one?


another option I considered is a Bester 2000, any opinions on that one?


I'm open to suggestions too.

[David Weaver]

The rika is king 1000 soft. It's just a light gray mud instead of red. I've never used a 2000 bester, and judging on the difference between the 1000 and 1200 (they are not similar stones), i'm not going to stretch and make an assumption about it.

Chosera 3000 is a nice mid grit stone, but it's not medium hardness and and it's expensive.

[Jim Koepke]

I'd like to get a middle stone.

Middle of what?

For me it is a 4000 between my 1000 and 8000 stones.

My 4000 is a King and seems hard compared to the other two Norton stones. There are other grits in my set up, it is just these three do almost all the work on refreshing an edge while working.

All the other stones stay dry almost all of the time. They may come out if an older blade needs a lot of work.

jtk

[Matthew N. Masail]

Middle between a 1k and a 8k. something fast that can be perma-soaked if I want.

Thank David for Rika info.... guess I won't be getting one king 1000 soft is wayy too soft.