My honing progression is made up of Naniwa Chosera 1k, then 3,5,8,k superstones and a 10k Icebear, and a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. Now this works fine, but my question is about the Chosera 10k. Is it worth the big price ticket, and does it do any better job than what I currently use. I have seen it advertised at $235 USD so, for that money is it worth considering and will it give me anything more than what I have and does it perform as it's price tag might imply. I only look at it from the perspective of it being a chosera, and I have the 1k, which is an excellent stone, so the question of this 30mm thick stone being worthwhile or not. Opinions...
Naniwa Chosera 10k hone
- Thread starter Bobski
- Start date
kelbro
Alfred Spatchcock
Not to me. Especially since you already have a 10K. But if you want it, buy it 
I'm not a huge fan of the C 10k for razors. I don't use synths above 8k very often for razors, but when I do it's usually the Naniwa 12k.
I have and sometimes use the Gok 20 to finish on and all though I have 10K and 12K stones I don't believe they are necessary at all for finishing on this stone. The jump from a well done 8K to the G20 is all I have used for a couple of years and I still don't have to do more than about two dozen laps on the G20 to finish.
I purchased a used 10K Chosera from a guy online and it arrived full of crazing and hairline cracks, ended up filing a dispute with paypal to get my $ back but that's another story.
If you do some internet searching you may find that these high grit Choseras are somewhat prone to this problem.
I purchased a used 10K Chosera from a guy online and it arrived full of crazing and hairline cracks, ended up filing a dispute with paypal to get my $ back but that's another story.
If you do some internet searching you may find that these high grit Choseras are somewhat prone to this problem.
I kind of feel like its the last hone in the sequence that matters the most. If I were finishing on synthetics I would lean towards buying another 20k as a backup. You could even use a 2nd one as a dressing stone after lapping to prep the honing surface to give your duplicate an actual use in the meanwhile. And you'd have a spare on hand if your main stone gets damaged.
There's a 10k Ice Bear?
It's also marketed as the "Kitayama" with grit descriptions ranging from 8K to 12K and higher, depending on the vendor.
It's a solid stone and I use it for my kitchen knives. But it's an 8K, so I'd be disappointed if I paid 10K or 12K prices for it.
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- Thread starter
- #9
I'll leave the Chosera alone, but my Icebear is four or five years old, on a wooden base, and is 210 x75 x 25, needs soaking, and works well with slurry. I have still got the original box and paperwork that came with it and it is stated to be 10k, and clay based. I've no reason to doubt it's credentials. I too go from the 8k to the 20k, but I often like to test shave a razor every now and again, just to see how I'm going, and on those occasions I finish on either the superstone 10k or the Icebear. I won't be buying a 2nd gok 20k, there's nothing wrong with mine, I was just interested to see what the point of the 10k chosera actually is, and at its price I expected more than just a 10k stone that cracks and crazes.
Thanks for your comments.
I've got a 1.2k/8k King combo for minimal goofing around. Yields a pretty decent, minimal goofing-around edge. But the 8k side does not benefit from a long soak, only the 1.2k side. Longer soaking with the 8k leads to an auto-slurry, which is detrimental, so the trick for me is to give it a brief soak (this involves a later flip after soaking the 1.2k side) and only a little bit of water on the surface when honing so as to dampen things.
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What kind of knives, Frank?
Frank, I could talk about Japanese Kitchen Knives all day long. I'm about to crash now, but lets talk via PM sometime this week, or if you'd rather start a thread in the mess hall that would work to and others could weigh in as well.
I'll be following this.
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