In-depth: The Suehiro Cerax

We're never quite sure what grit to call the coarsest stone in the cerax range, as it usually has #400 printed on the stone and #320 on the packaging, but whatever number you run with, it's important to know that this stone is like your uncle who's had too much to drink on Christmas day - it is obscenely coarse, and more so than #400s from the other major waterstone brands.

This stone leaves a very heavy scratch pattern and is capable of removing material at a similar rate to medium or fine diamond plates. However, to maintain it's monstrous levels of aggression it also breaks down very, very quickly, and is probably also the softest stone we currently stock.

For those who hand-sharpen and find diamond plates too hard and unforgiving, the #320 cerax is a great alternative. However, we would certainly recommend that it be used with a diamond plate, as it will need continuous flattening throughout the sharpening process.

Having said that, this level of aggression in a soft stone can be very, very handy. It's an excellent way to reprofile rounded blades such as axes, knives and gouges without adding unwanted facets or bevels to them, and once the flattening process is incorporated into your sharpening schedule, setup of wide plane blades or chisels can be sped up considerably.

We're a big fan of the #320 stone. If you're looking for a coarse stone and don't need to regrind many full-size Stanley plane blades, we'd recommend the combination #320 / #800 stone, which is slightly smaller but gives great flexibility with one hard and one soft stone. Removing the #320's deep scratches is much easier with the #800 cerax than the #1000 cerax so the combination is a great way of speeding up the progression through the grits too.

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