Aoto is a natural medium stone you use between #2000 synthetic and #6000/8000 synthetic or natural medium finishing stone. It is possible to jump to #8000 from #2000, but it takes long time to erase the marks from #2000, and also you'd lose a lot of #8000 by fixing the flat of the surface.

Although synthetic finishing stones are fast in cutting thus very convenient for daily use, the marks that's incised are quite deep even with #8000, it takes lots of time to erase it with the finishing stone. So when I want to make the edge extra fine, I would switch to natural stones altogether after #2000, and use Aoto > natural medium finishing stone > natural finishing stone.

Below are all old Inokura of the highest quality I've been collecting over the years. This kind of Aoto simply doesn't exist anymore....

#1 $230 SOLD

#2 $200 SOLD

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#3 SOLD

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#4 SOLD

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#5 SOLD

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#6 SOLD

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#7 SOLD