Naniwa Advanced Superstones

[me2]

I just tested out a set of these I bought to replace my well worn King 1000 and Norton 250 grit water stones. Both are down to about 1/4” thick.

I got what I consider a basic starter kit: 220, 800, & 2000. These are the S2 version, 20mm thick. One reason I got them is because these are “splash and go” and do not require soaking. That indeed appears to be the case as water just sits on the sorface and doesn’t soak in.

Which side is the proper side to use: the blank side, or the side with the logo? I’ve only sharpened one knife and if I was using the wrong side I can change and it won’t be noticeable in the stone.

These seem to leave a finer finish than I have come to expect from my previous water stones. Is that normal? This knife was already shaped so no rebeveling was required, just sharpening the bevels and knocking off the darkening from use. The edge steel is a high carbon steel.

Basically no slurry was formed and in general these behave quite differently from what I’m accustomed to in a water stone. The edge off the 800 grit was very sharp and I didn’t progress to the 2000 grit. Burr formation was minimal, though detectable. Is this behavior normal or was I doing something wrong? If things go well and I like them, I plan to get the 5000 and 10,000 to complete the set.

 

[DeadboxHero]

I just tested out a set of these I bought to replace my well worn King 1000 and Norton 250 grit water stones. Both are down to about 1/4” thick.

I got what I consider a basic starter kit: 220, 800, & 2000. These are the S2 version, 20mm thick. One reason I got them is because these are “splash and go” and do not require soaking. That indeed appears to be the case as water just sits on the sorface and doesn’t soak in.

Which side is the proper side to use: the blank side, or the side with the logo? I’ve only sharpened one knife and if I was using the wrong side I can change and it won’t be noticeable in the stone.

These seem to leave a finer finish than I have come to expect from my previous water stones. Is that normal? This knife was already shaped so no rebeveling was required, just sharpening the bevels and knocking off the darkening from use. The edge steel is a high carbon steel.

Basically no slurry was formed and in general these behave quite differently from what I’m accustomed to in a water stone. The edge off the 800 grit was very sharp and I didn’t progress to the 2000 grit. Burr formation was minimal, though detectable. Is this behavior normal or was I doing something wrong? If things go well and I like them, I plan to get the 5000 and 10,000 to complete the set.

Just seems like a rebranding of the Naniwa super stones like how the Chosera was re-branded as the professional line.

The super stones were resin based splash and go stones, they did not possess the more aggressive cutting power like in the chosera but were known for higher finishing at the same grit thanks to the burnishing from the resin bonding.

Not ideal for vanadium/niobium rich steels; simply doesn't "crisp up" the edges on those due to the softer alumina abrasive.

Ideal for kasumi finishes on ni-mai blades and the 8k and 12k were nice for straight razors.

They also didn't suffer the cracking issues found in the choseras due magnesia bonding (notably the 5k and 10k chosera)

The super stones dished faster, feedback was a little more on the "gummy" side.

Application in my experience is for finishing wider bevels that have already been taken to the final geometry on coasers stones.

 

[me2]

They’re called Advanced Super Stones so that may be the case. I haven’t rebeveled anything with the coarser stone yet. I generally prefer carbon and lower alloy stainless steels in kitchen knives and something in the range of VG-10 (Spyderco) in a pocket knife. That range of steels should be fine.

I’ve sharpened a Misuzu Bunka with whatever carbon steel they use for a core steel, something like 1080 I think. I just finished my Spyderco Santoku up to the 2000 grit stone. It was catching hair above the skin off the stone but I did a couple of deburring passes and stripped it anyway. It’s sharper than new now.

I have a Tojiro ITK knife with a long gone black forge finish to do next but it is quite sharp and doesn’t need it yet. When I do that one I’ll thin and polish the primary bevels and see how that goes.

 

[me2]

I just finished polishing and somewhat thinning the bevels of my Tojiro Petty. Two things are immediately apparent.

First, these stones do form a slurry if you do this kind of work with them. For some reason when sharpening just the edge, they don’t get muddy.

Second, I am terrible at polishing bevels on stones. 220 grit and done from now on. These do seem to give a more even finish than the King or Norton stones.

 

[Jason B.]

Naniwa decided to add a bunch of new names to the same line of stones a few years back. There might be some unnoticeable formula change to the stone but the biggest change was different thickness stones.

As mentioned, the resin bond Advanced stones are pure polishing stones IME. They will load more and produce more polish than other stones. Very well liked by straight razor sharpeners because the smooth polish equates to a smoother shave.

In the lower grits they will be fast wearing so be careful when letting mud build on wide bevels. You will end up with unwanted scratches.

While the new Super Stone line is a quality stone it's not really on my recommendation list for knife sharpening.

 

[me2]

While I'm not sharpening more complex alloys, these stones have produced excellent edges on the Misuzu and Tojiro knives as well as the Spyderco Santoku. The Santoku is the most complex alloy I've sharpened with them so far, but the edge whittles hair. What would you recommend over these? Keep in mind it's been over a decade since I've bought new stones.

So far, I'm quite impressed with the final edge I can get with these. My wife used the Tojiro and dulled the last 2/3 of the edge and I could see light glinting off the cutting edge. I was able to restore it using just the 2000 grit stone and Hobby Lobby strop with white compound.

 

[Jason B.]

2000 is a good finishing point, it's my preferred finish for a lot of kitchen knives. The stones you have are of good quality and will do well for you in a home environment. My dislikes are the softness of the stone and rubbery feel at finishing grits. The next step up is Naniwa Chosera, the 400, 800 and 3000 are some of my favorite stones and have some of the best sharpening "feel" of any synthetic stone. The Chosera Cut instead of Polish, so unlike the Super stone or a lot of other stones you still have a defined scratch pattern as you move through the 3k and 5k stones. This give the edge more cutting power because the edge is still "toothy" at a very fine grit unlike other stones that kinda burnish the surface to a high luster and make the edge much smoother. Still very sharp but lacking bite.

Just a preference from using a lot of different stone.

 

[DeadboxHero]

2000 is a good finishing point, it's my preferred finish for a lot of kitchen knives. The stones you have are of good quality and will do well for you in a home environment. My dislikes are the softness of the stone and rubbery feel at finishing grits. The next step up is Naniwa Chosera, the 400, 800 and 3000 are some of my favorite stones and have some of the best sharpening "feel" of any synthetic stone. The Chosera Cut instead of Polish, so unlike the Super stone or a lot of other stones you still have a defined scratch pattern as you move through the 3k and 5k stones. This give the edge more cutting power because the edge is still "toothy" at a very fine grit unlike other stones that kinda burnish the surface to a high luster and make the edge much smoother. Still very sharp but lacking bite.

Just a preference from using a lot of different stone.

Those name changes aren't helping.


Confusing the consumer.

I believe these stones may have dropped in popularity (hence the name change?) and there are folks that missed out on information we used to feel was common knowledge amongst sharpeners, especially for kitchen knives.

All of that hard-earned experience about the real world nuances between the stones and how to use them, I kinda miss those days.


Good to see you still sharing.

 

[me2]

I didn’t rebevel my Schrade yet. I have another knife to try to rebevel as well. If those go well, I’ll move to my other knives like my Delica and Endura and see how the S2 stones handle a higher wear steel. My son has a Benchmade in MagnaCut that will be the final test, though I don’t think I’ll rebevel it. For his uses the factory angle will work better.

 

[cudgee]

Those name changes aren't helping.


Confusing the consumer.

Really good way to lose customers. Structure and consistency are well known advertising tools used in the advertising and marketing industry. Tamper with them at your own peril.

 

[me2]

Rebeveling the clip point blade on my Schrade seems to be going well. It’s nearly there, but I had to step away and didn’t quite get finished. I will eventually do the spey blade too but it’s sharp so I won’t mess with it until it really needs a new sharpening.

 

[Jason B.]

Those name changes aren't helping.


Confusing the consumer.

I believe these stones may have dropped in popularity (hence the name change?) and there are folks that missed out on information we used to feel was common knowledge amongst sharpeners, especially for kitchen knives.

All of that hard-earned experience about the real world nuances between the stones and how to use them, I kinda miss those days.


Good to see you still sharing.

Really good way to lose customers. Structure and consistency are well known advertising tools used in the advertising and marketing industry. Tamper with them at your own peril.

So I'm not 100% on this but..

I'm pretty sure is was done to reduce stone cost so it would be more appealing to the home cook. Overall doesn't make much sense to me because Naniwa has so many different lines of stones, last thing they need is more options.

 

[me2]

I’ve been using these for a little bit now and really like them. I’ve been using them almost exclusively for kitchen knives. In that arena, once the knife is sharp, I can go back to the 2000 grit stone once every week or two and resharpen with minimal effort. They haven’t really shown any wear either. I’ll likely finish rebeveling my Schrade and give it a final polishing.