Should I get...

[Craig James]

A chosera 800 and 3000

Or

Diasharp fine and extra extra fine

Already have the coarse DMT and some cheap stones off amazon.

I don’t have any super steels but may get some in the future but tend to like the feel of waterstones more than the diamonds...

I think I’d prefer the choseras but don’t want to then have to buy some diamonds at relatively similar effective grits... but of a conundrum.

 

[Wowbagger]

If getting high vanadium knives, S30V, S90V, S110V etc., for sure get the diamomd plates.
For the plain high carbon blades you will like the Choseras better and they are much more versital to when it comes to putting various coarsness of edge on.
Though I have a ton of diamond plates as well as two tons of water stones I don't have those two but spent many hours this month watching sharpening videos about th 800 and the 3000.
They are very highly regarded; I never paid all that much attention to them until this month. I was all mesmerized with Shapton Pro stones and Shapton glass stones but have been considering getting the Choseras for use with my plain high carbon knives.

 

[Dangerously]

Switching abrasives doesn’t always work out well. I’d get a diamond set you like, for the steels that respond well to diamond, and a set of naniwa stones for the steels that respond well to those.

I have a full set of the DMTs, and love them. I also have the naniwa pro 400 and green brick of joy 2000 and love those. But I generally use the diamonds or the naniwa on a given blade, not both.

If you’re building a waterstone set, I wouldn’t start at 800. Too fine. If you want to end at 3000, maybe 400, 1000, 3000? I like my 400, 2000 set up, and I add a 5000 as necessary.

 

[Craig James]

I generally always use my coarse dmt and then switch to my water stones. Not because I feel that this works well - but it is what I currently have in the arsenal.

Trouble is, an effective grit of 325 is too coarse for just retouching an edge, my water stones on the other hand are too fine... so I need something in the middle.

Surely if you get a correctly apexed edge then it shouldn’t matter if you then switch to a water stone? <—— I don’t know the answer to this, it is just logical based on my rather limited sharpening experience...