Here are some pictures of my stones, as well as the sort of koppa (or scraps) I used to learn which stone work best for me and my tools.
The first pic from left is of two koppa.
The next three are of my best stone, a Honyama of unusual beauty that creates a wonderful, cloudy finish on good hard steel, and a flat grey finish on soft steel. A bit on the soft side, it loves my plane blades and vice versa. It is wider than standard stones, but shorter and a tad thinner. This makes it perfect for my purposes, and the way I sharpen plane blades. Also, a stone of this quality and width, if full length and perfect, would cost many thousands of dollars. I got this one at a reasonable price (a long time ago). I am careful of when and how I use this stone to prolong its life. I did not attach it to a base, but keep it in a dedicated plastic container and wrapped in bubble wrap when not in use. It has not spit up any sand yet.
The next three pics are of the natural finishing stone I use the most. It too is from Honyama. It is not as fine as the stone to the left, but it is still very good. It is harder and more durable, and chisels are less likely to gouge its surface. I Use it for planes, chisels, kiridashi, and most everything. I need a standard sized stone like this at hand all the time, and in 15 years or so, will wear one out entirely. I have had this one for about 5 years, and paid around $500 for it. That was a reasonable price, but I could have probably procured it for less if I had had the time to shop around and travel to Kyoto.
Both stones have their perimeter and undersides painted with an artificial urethane called Cashew made from the oil of the cashew tree. Urushi (natural lacquer) is the traditional coating, but my wife breaks out in hives if she is anywhere near urushi, so Cashew is the next best thing. One guy in a book on stones I have glued a layer of patterned washi paper to the perimeter of his stones. The effect was nice, but a bit too gay for my taste.
The purpose of the paint, for those that don't know, is to keep water from penetrating the sides of the stone causing the layers of sedimentary material that form natural stones to separate. I have not experienced that so far (knock on forehead). Perhaps it is because of the paint. In any case, natural stones stones like these are quite fragile and must be treated with care.
The base of the large stone is made from a cutoff of Ipe deck material from one of my jobsites. Two pieces laminated one on top of the other actually. I have tried a number of materials for stone bases, and Ipe has been the best so far by a country mile. I highly recommend it.
Most of you will have never used stones like these, and would have a difficult time even finding them if you developed the itch to have your own. Please understand that you don't need stones like these to sharpen your tools to maximum sharpness. They are undoubtedly a waste of time and money. But they do make the tools beautiful, and perhaps make them cut a little longer, and are so very very pleasant to use.
Stan
Koppa79sm.jpgHonyamaPlane80sm.jpgHonyamaPlane EdgeCU82sm.jpgHonyamaPlaneCU81sm.jpgHonyamaLargeFront83sm.jpgHonyamaLargeBEV84sm.jpgHonyamaLargeFaceCU86sm.jpg