Naniwa Chocera Pro Stones

[titanxt]

On the recommendation of someone on another forum, I bought a couple Naniwa Chosera Pro waterstones. Full disclosure, I bought the stones to sharpen some knives... They arrived today and I grabbed a very cheap, dull knife and gave it a go. I started off purchasing the 400 and 1000 grit stones. I was very pleased with my first try by hand. The 400 was very aggressive and did not require a lot of time to use. It was also very responsive in that I could feel and hear what it was doing - again, keep in mind I have no experience up to this point, but I was feeling and hearing something... The 1000 also performed well. I was able to get the knife back to moderately shaving sharpness. Definitely not the sharpest result I have ever obtained, but definitely sharp. I believe my angles were not consistent and caused one side of the blade to be flatter ground than the other. [/font][/size][/color]

[titanxt]

Couldn't wait... ordered the 3000 grit stone today. Was going to space out the purchase a bit, but that didn't last.

[OneStaple]

I've heard great things about the chocera stones, but haven't gotten to try one myself. I'd love to know if you have further thoughts once you've have a chance to use them a bit. Including on the 3000.

Tyler

[titanxt]

I will definitely give an update when I receive the 3000 grit stone. I have noticed that I keep a more consistent angle with the 400 than the 1000. I do not know why, but I am suspecting it is due to poor form, lack of experience and the stone is slicker and doesn’t grip the existing angle as well.

[Ricky]

I've heard great things about both stones.  The only complaint I've heard about Naniwa is many have said they often develop cracks.
Just something I've hard in Sharpening forums and yt channels.

[AHill]

From what I've heard, they are decent stones. The only complaint I've heard is they dish out more easily than Shapton Ceramics. They have a reputation for fast cutting. Kind of makes sense, since Chosera composition is intended to replicate a natural water stone feel. For my tools, I use Sigma Power Select II, which are more designed to tackle the harder, more exotic steels e.g. A2 and D2.

[hbmcc]

I have a cheapskates' view of stones exceeding $100 or having grit media thinner than I can see. Go ahead and laugh at me for using stones as bench ballast. Keep in mind the industry makes more profit from selling sharpening media than the steel it is grinding.

I've used a bunch of sharpening media and have settled on ceramic water stones for the meat of steel prep., [Japanese] ~1000 to ~4000. I use two #1000 soft ceramic stones to cut steel and to flatten each other. The #4000 and finer take much longer to go out of flat and I use diamond on Veritas plates to flatten those finer grits. I don't have reasonable tools for hollow grinding so work with flat primary bevels.

It's pretty easy for me to nick or dull an edge when going to stones finer than #4000. Hence, leather (and green) stropping. 

[titanxt]

An update: The 3000-grit stone arrive a while ago, as well as the little, plastic edge guide wedges. Using the edge guide as a better reference helped a lot. The 3000-grit stone was very nice and didn’t feel too slick like a previous high grit stone I used to own. The 3000 took the edge of the knife to a super sharp level. Seemed to make a lot of difference - as did the angle guide for sure. I stropped with leather and the green stuff as I did when the 1000-grit stone was the highest grit I owned. The stones were not cheap, but to date, they are the first stones I have used that actually produced a really nice edge. My plan is to invest in a nice knife or two once I learn to sharpen consistently.

[titanxt]

I felt brave last night and grabbed an 8” chef knife that I have touched up a few times with a steel, and decided to give it a go on the 3000-grit stone. I did not use any of the guides as I found them to be in the way when trying to sharpen a large knife. I spent a few minutes polishing the edge with the 3000-grit and it turned out very well. Likely the sharpest knife I have done to this point.

[AHill]

For my kitchen and pocket knives, I use the KME System, which is pretty good and consistent. There is a wide choice of stones / media to use. I use diamond paste on leather strops and I get wicked sharp edges on my knives.