There are hundreds of new products out there when it comes to the very important ritual of sharpening plane irons. They all work extremely well and all have advantages and disadvantages when it comes to cost, time saving, durability, edge control, and level of difficulty. If we step back a bit from all of the newfangled products and our fixation with what works the best at the moment we see that the end desired result is simply an extremely sharp edge. For hundreds and hundreds of years the Japanese have traditionally used water to lubricate sharpening stones in order to hone very fine edges for their cutting tools. The first stones used were natural mineral deposits that were simply dug up from the ground. The native soils of Japan had the right silicate particles to make for the perfect sharpening clay matrix. The most well known area where these very useful silicates are found is in the Narutaki District North of Kyoto. Although soft the Japanese waterstone is natures perfect