Naniwa Waterstone kit

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pas3n7

Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
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I'm pretty sick of my gatco kit, and I'm spending more time using the stones freehand than I am using the clamp.

I think I'd be better off just getting some stones that were meant to be used this way.

So I stumbled on this kit, and I am wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom. Is this a good value? and does anyone have any experience with these stones? And is this enough to get me started?

http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Naniwa-Japanese-Combination-Waterstone-Set-P324C97.aspx

Thanks gents
 
Yeah, looks good, but I think that 120 is very coarse. Why don't you just buy them separately from somewhere? If you wanna regrind stuff then I can understand the 120, but otherwise you'll be fine with like 400, 1000 and 3000... and some leather.
 
pas3n7 said:
So I stumbled on this kit, and I am wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom. Is this a good value? and does anyone have any experience with these stones? And is this enough to get me started?
Click to expand...

For the price, it seems to be a very good value. It would sure be enough to get you started. I use Naniwa Super Stones (not 120 grit) and have no complaints. Although the 120 is coarse, you should have no problem progressing through the stones in this kit and acheiving good results.
 
Alright, went ahead and ordered it.

I was concerned about the 120 being too coarse too, but I think it's a good enough deal to take the risk of needing another stone later.

I do tend to reprofile most of my knives when I get them, so hopefully it will be useful.

Now, who knows how to speed up the postal service so I get them faster?
 
[Devil's Advocate]

You could try making out with the mailman! :D

[/Devil's Advocate]
 
Let us know how these stones work out for you. I wonder what is the difference between these and Naniwa's standard lines (Superstone and Chocera series)
 
chosera form naniwa are the hardest and best waterstones in their line, they don't need to soak in water, only moisten them to use them
superstones are between the 'work' stones from naniwa and the chosera quality and price wise.
Superstones are not the fine quality the chosera are, but they still don't need to be totally soaked to function.
Work stones need to be soaked for minutes to function.

I hAve superstones 120/1000 2000/5000 10000 they work fine for me
 
zyhano said:
chosera form naniwa are the hardest and best waterstones in their line, they don't need to soak in water, only moisten them to use them
superstones are between the 'work' stones from naniwa and the chosera quality and price wise.
Superstones are not the fine quality the chosera are, but they still don't need to be totally soaked to function.
Work stones need to be soaked for minutes to function.

I hAve superstones 120/1000 2000/5000 10000 they work fine for me
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's interesting info. I have some Superstones too but they are rather soft and gummy at the lower grits. I see that you own only the soft ones. There are some anomalies in the SS line like the hard 12k.

I've ordered a Chosera 400 to replace them. I hope they are as good as the hype says. The Choseras are actually similarly priced to the Superstones if thickness of the stone is taken into account, except for the overpriced 10k.
 
Got the set today, and I really like them so far.

The stones are larger than I thought they would be, which I'm perfectly happy about.

The 120 grit stone is indeed very coarse. The 1000 grit stone does, however, cut surprisingly quickly. I haven't had a problem going straight from the 120 to the 1000 grit, though something in between might eventually make a nice addition.

The 3000 grit stone leaves what I would call a 'near mirror' finish. I can see myself in the edge, but it's just a little bit hazy.

I got a similar finish from the gatco 'ultimate finishing hone' (1200 grit ceramic) but the waterstone works so much faster, there is really no comparison.

The whole process is much different than the gatco system. I definitely need more practice before I get a perfect edge. Right now the bevels I'm getting are slightly convex.

One other thing I've noticed is that if I'm having trouble sharpening freehand, it's much less frustrating than when things go wrong with the gatco system. Mistakes made freehand are my fault, and something I can learn from. When things go wrong with the gatco kit, however, it's usually because the clamp doesn't work well on flat ground blades, or the blade is too small for the clamp, or the rods are bent, etc.
It's a learning process instead of a battle.

Coming from the gatco system, there's a few other things I've noticed. For one, waterstones are messy, and get water everywhere. Water, on the other hand, is much easier to clean up than oil. Also, the water stones don't 'fill up' and have to be cleaned like the others do. Just a splash of water and a little rub and they're good.

The only real difficulty is maintaining a consistent angle, which I'm working on. And even though it's not perfect, I'm still getting razor sharp edges.

Here's a picture of the stones with a spyderco tenacious and a becker necker for size comparison:


And here's the package insert:

 
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