Gesshin 600 Resinoid Stone

The Gesshin 600 Resinoid Stone is a soft coarse stone, designed to work well on wide bevel knives and single bevel knives.  One of the issues with wide bevels and single bevels is that harder stones can leave streaks or uneven scratch patterns, and those tend to be more visible with the increased surface area.  By making the stone softer, we are able to improve two things.  First, we increased the cutting speed of this stone, as more fresh abrasive is released more quickly as the binder wears away.  Second, this stone creates a lot more mud, which helps improve the smooth and even finish this stone leaves.  The scratches from this stone are easy to remove with anything from any medium grit stone to some faster cutting finishing stones (i.e. our Gesshin 3000 or Gesshin 6000).
Like all resinoid based stones, this stone needs to be cared for carefully, especially when considering drying.  Resinoid based stones are not very porous, which often causes them to be marketed as splash-and-go.  However, some water does soak in.  My preference is to soak this stone permanently, as soaking helps soften the stone, increases cutting speed, and reducing loading on the stone surface.  If you do soak the stone, or if you think any water has soaked in, and you decided you want to dry the stone out for any reason, you will need to make sure the stone dries as slowly as possible, to help make sure the outer part of the stone does not dry more quickly than the inner part of the stone.  Making sure the stone dries in a cool, well ventilated, dry area, out of direct sunlight is best.  It also helps to wrap the stone with a damp towel to slow the drying process further.  If unaccounted for, drying too quickly can cause cracks to develop in the stone. If cracks do develop, mounting the stone to a base can help extend the life of your stone.