Chosera stones soak, splash, or soak & splash?

[uilleann]

I used to have chosera stones on my KME and now I have them on my wicked edge. I did a video a while back showing how I would soak the choseras for 5-10 miniutes and then keep them wet while sharpeing either with a wet finger or now a squirt bottle.

I got a comment that choseras are only splash and go and that I should never soak them as it would harm the stone.

From my experience, for the stones to work properly there has to be a slurry. And for that to happen the surface must be wet. So you either have to keep splashing it with water or soak them for 5-10 minutes and then splash when needed. If I do not do that my stones go dry and there is no slurry.

I have read that soaking choseras too long can lead to cracking but thaty 5-10 minutes was ok. And my stones are doing fine.

So..... What do the rest of you do with your chosera stones??

 

[Jason B.]

Splash only.

IMO, soaking is what leads to cracking with these stones.

P.S. Slurry is of little importance unless you are hand sharpening large single bevel blades. In which case the slurry provides a cushion for the blade road to ride on. The mudd is also what produces the Kasumi finish on Japanese blades... but ya gotta know got to work it.