Trying to preserve the writing is like trying to keep your pencil eraser looking new! It's made to be used, not saved and gazed at. Grind away on that sucker!
Place of origin will continue to guide my buying choices until I find a German one that can hold an acceptable edge for two weeks of commercial use. I'm not holding my breath.
My favorite brands that I have in no particular order:
Nubatama- Pretty expensive, I think my 240mm is around $830 right now, but just a stunning knife.
Moritaka- Superb HT on the Aogami Super steel. Great edge...
Personally I think the GlassStones are really good for the newer breeds of modern "super steel". That's about all I use them for. Nearly all Shapton stones are on the harder end of the spectrum, and I very much prefer...
The Kono and the Ultimatum are two very different beasts. Both work equally well on the line with stuff like slicing cooked protein, but the Kono is a lot thinner. Not the the Ultimatum is an axe, but it does fall on the...
It's everything you claimed it would be, too. Extremely thin, the thinnest I've ever used. Light, too. I weighed it and it's over 1/2 oz lighter than my Nubatama of the same size (although I think the difference is...
I recently received a Richmond Artifex in M390 to sharpen for a friend of mine from another forum; it was a gift he was getting for a couple and he wanted it sharpened before presenting it to them. I was impressed with the...
