Chosera 400 or 600...

Paul L.

Paul L.

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Oct 27, 2017
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Hey guys. Need some input. I've been sharpening for a while now, about a year. For the most of it it was with my KME but the last 3 or 4 months I've ventured into free hand. I have a pretty good setup but need some advice. I just got the chosera 1k, but what I need help with is what to replace my small rather mediocre boker 600 japanese stone. It would be for after my shapton 320 and before my chosera 1k. So do I get the 600 to be more in the middle and have less work to do with the 1k, or go with the 400 to have less work after the 320. Or do you have any other good stones in the 400-600 grit...like maybe the Beston 500.. Well looking forward to any input from anyone who is experienced or even in the same boat and had the same dilemma. Happy Sharpenings!
 
You shouldn't need anything between a 320 & 1K stone, unless you are really going for some extreme polishing on high hrc steel here. A Chosera is a relatively hard & fast 1K, it can take out 320 scratches easily.
You might use a Chosera 400 instead of Shapton 320.
 
Good tip. Your right. I do want to eventually switch to choseras in my lineup. And I think I will get the 400 when I decide to. And then the 2k and I don't think I need to replace my 4k, 6k, and 8k because they are awesome stones. Have you ever used the Beston 500? I think its a Bester but they call it Beston for some reason. Should I keep the shapton 320 and get a Beston 500 or just go with chosera 400 and that's it til my 1k. I do like making nice polished edges especially for my nice folders. But for kitchen knives I like a toothier edge. Screw it I'm gonna just get all of them slowly. Lol
 
The Beston 500 is a good starter stone but the NP400 and SG 320 are some of the best stones made. The SG320 will do better on harder and higher alloy steels while the Chosera will do best on carbon and low to medium alloy stainless.

The Naniwa Pro (aka Chosera) are the ideal stones to hand sharpen on as long as the steel is not to heavily alloyed. I really like them on Kitchen knives and chisels but not so much for folders. The three ideal stones from the Naniwa Pro line are the 400, 800 and 3000 and are the three recommended by Naniwa reps... though the 800 and 1k are fought over for who is best in what seems to be a never ending battle.

For more modern cutlery the Shapton Glass really leap ahead of other waterstones in sharpening ability. The common set is the 500 and 2k but the 320, 1k and 3k also make a very good set. The Shapton's also polish better, FYI.
 
Thanks, I Definetly have a few things to think on. Appreciate the help.
 
Paul I do not know what the Chosera's are like when sharpening with a full size stone but I found my Chosera stones for the KME were horrible at glazing over and it got to the point after I did 2 to 3 knives the next time I would go and use them they would not remove any metal at all,I have found the best way to remove the glaze or to remove metal filing's that have loaded up in a stone is with a rust eraser I told a few friends about them as well and everyone just seems to love them,the benefit to using a rust eraser is that it does not remove as much of the stones surface as a Nagura stone does and the rust eraser works a lot faster as well,they are made up of rubber and a fine grit and the one you want is the medium grit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-k...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
 
Ya I actually have the 2 pack with the medium and fine. They are great. I have a 2k, 5k, and 10k chosera for my KME and have never had any problem with loading. I soak them for a few minutes before I use them and before I switch sides of the bevel I will put a few drops of water on them and always keep them on the wet side. I've had incredible results doing it that way. Do me a favor and try that, keep adding a few drops every time just before you put them to the edge. And I also have a older worn 600 kme diamond hone I use with the 10k to create a slurry and clear the loading if it needs it. But I find it to be minimal and controllable. Unless your referring to the lower grits and in that case try the same thing, I think you will be surprised. If not it sounds like you have a good system going and that medium is perfect. Ive used it on my full size stones before. But with all the smaller diamond stones I have I just use them. I actually just got a pack of dmt mini whetstones in coarse, fine and extra fine for 20$ on amazon that work like a nagura but you don't have to worry about contamination. Same idea as the worn kme stones. Thanks for the reply though I will see how the 1k goes when I use it since I just got it today!
 
Also after each and every time I use my kme chosera stones I would flatten. A 6" dmt diasharp xcoarse and coarse are perfect for it. That way they always stay flat and never have any steel from the last sharpening on it. I find that if I don't do it after every sharpening session they get more and more away from flat and then I have to spend way longer to get then flat. A guy that works for KME Brian taught me that. Color it with a pencil with hash marks or whatever and go to town. Sometimes its just a quick job and you would be surprised how just one sharpening gets low spots. Do it with them wet too, its much easier
 
I always wet the stones sometimes 2 or 3 times before I'm done sharpening the edge as the Chosera's do not seem to hold water as good as other stones and I was told by Ken Schwartz and also read something that Naniwa put that you can damage the stones if you perma soak them or soak them to long I soak mine for about 10 to 15 minutes max.
I did not find I needed to flatten after every knife I sharpened but what I did find is that the stones would glaze over and when I say stop cutting I mean stop cutting at all,if you flatten yours each time after using them then you would not have gotten the glazing problem I'm talking about.
 
Ya true, I did notice a tiny bit of loading with the 5k and 10k after one, but like I said I use a worn 600 and clean it all off during and after, so maybe that's the key and it's normal. I'm interested to see how the full size 1k does. And I plan on getting the 2k which I have for my kme also and its my favorite, don't need to make any slurry and it doesn't load, I just keep it wet and when I'm done rub the swarf off with my thumb in its Tupperware full of water and it comes right off. Do you have the loading issue with every grit from 400 to 10k or just higher grits? It must just be higher ones...right? I did have a 12k shapton pro for my kme and that one loaded like nobody's business and I just really did not like the feedback or anything about it. And sad story my 10k chosera broke while I was drying it cuz it was half its thickness and the same week my new naniwa specialty stone ss 8k broke as well after it warped on me and I was trying to fix it. I just got a rotary tool with tons of attachments so I grabbed an abrasive wheel and traced a kme stone on it and cut out a kme sized 8k super stone! The specialty stones are half as thick as the regular super stones so it wasn't all that much thicker than a brand new kme chosera. So now I have that and its actually really good and may polish better than the chosera 10k..and I also have room to cut out 2 more! So I'm pretty happy about that considering that 8k ss cost me 24$ because I had a credit. So it all worked out. And I replaced it with a Kitayama 8k full size which I absolutely love so I'm happy. Anyways nice chatting and I will see how it goes, take it easy
 
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