EPA stone question

T

The1trueBeavis

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Aug 16, 2013
Messages
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I'm completely new to knife sharpening. I'm looking at buying a Edge Pro Apex, I'm pretty new to the world of quality knives and rather than fool around with other techniques I'd like to just cough up the money, get a good sharpener, and have sharp knives from the start of my collecting. I recently read a thread where people were talking about shapton vs chosera stones for the EPA, can anyone explain the difference? Which does the EPA come with? Which do I have to level and what's the best way to do it? Is the $50 leveling kit from the EPA website the best or what? How often will I have to level? Wow 6 questions in one post lol. Thanks in advance.
P.S. I've googled and forum searched all my questions but couldn't find any good answers.
 
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I was debating whether geyting the E.P. with choseras or shaptons myself for a long time. I ended up getting the shaptons (about a month ago) and have been super satisfied. I ordered the 8k stone in addition and i am glad i did. The 4k is knice but the 8k takes it to another level. Then strop after that with balsa. The single best thing you can do to keep your stones flat is order the 140 Atoma plate. It is a heavy expense at $75, but will save you MUCH more in the long run. By using this to grind you initial bevels, your shaptons will stay flat so much longer. You dont need any flattening kit b.s. if you already have a fairly couse diamond stone. Just use that. I can tell you the shapton 500 cuts twice as fast as the standard e.p. 220 and the Atoma cuts about ten times faster than the Shapton 500. Btw, one big advantage to the shaptons over the chosera is they are about twice as thick, giving you longer life.
 
Depends where you get your stones from. My shaptons are thicker than the shaptons.and choseras on the CKTG website...

The 140 atoma is a great accessory as previously mentioned. And will make repairs/reprofiles quick and flattening a breeze. The low grit stuff i flatten every knife. The higher grit stuff every 2 or3 knives.

I like the shaptons. But i am probably going to get a set of choseras at some.point in the future.
 
So the Shapton/chosera stones are aftermarket? That makes more sense. Still though what's the difference? I also don't have any other sharpening equipment. Anybody else have an answer?
 
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The shaptons are much harder and less forgiving. They have some quirks that can throw a new sharpener off. The Choseras are softer and offer a feedback that more people prefer. The shaptons cut faster and go to a slightly finer finish. But stone for stone the choseras are finer.

IE a 5k chosera is slightly finer than a 5k shapton. But the choseras tap out at 10k whereas the shaptons go all the way to 30k.

The shaptons also handle harder steels better than the choseras , but neither can tackle Vanadium Carbide without doping them.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Would a 6" dmt XC stone level out the original EPA stones? If so how does one go about doing that and could I mount the dmt stone somehow so I could use it with the EPA or would stone thickness and other things be a problem? Thanks for your help, I'm still learning :)
 
Yes the DMT will be able to lap the stock stones.

If your talking about the 2x6 you can buy a spare blank and moint it yourself , assuming you have one laying around. Or you can buy them pre made at chefknivestogo.

From CKTG you can also get EPA kits that come with most everything you need. Do some reading on the drill stop collar and how its used. It allows you to compensate for variations in stone thickness.
 
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