Naniwa Chosera ROUND 1k just arrived and it's awesome!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

After the Post Office not being able to find my house that hasn't moved in 178 years, and sending my stone back to Germany; Thanks to the great folks at Dieter-Schmid who paid to reship it, my Chosera round 1k has arrived. ...and it ROCKS! (Pun intended)

I know there are those that dislike Choseras because of the reported cracking or crazing. I have yet to have any issue. I absolutely love the feel, the cutting speed, and the finish of these stones. I have been switching from the Shapton Glass, which are excellent stones, and I am keeping them as well.

I found the Chosera round 1k at Dieter-Schmid for €117 shipped including the round rubber base. That is around $126 USD at the moment. That's close to the price of the smaller regular stone. Why not get the big dog?

So I will skip any review of the stone's performance since that has been hashed out many times. I will just show you how big it is with an image of two Choseras sitting on top of it. This thing will make flattening g backs a breeze, which is the main reason I got it to begin with. I do now plan to get the 320 round and maybe down the road sell my 3k and get the 3k round.

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[ian maybury]

Being in Ireland I buy buy quite a lot from Dieter Schmid, and find that their service is good - and their prices good too. Not hugely above the US, and usually well below the UK suppliers who always seem to be pushing the boat out on price - and best of all they have a very cost effective UPS service from Germany. Cheaper often than shipping from the UK. Mostly nice products too - quite Lee valley-ish in that if they are offering it it tends to be pretty decent quality.

You posted before Malcolm, but my memory isn't up to much. What are you proposing to run the round stones on, and what do you have in mid for flattening them?

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice! I am very much looking forward to using one soon.....

[Malcolm Schweizer]

For now I am just going to use them stationary, but I have in mind to use a very slow-geared electric motor to spin them. Really this is something I have had on the drawing board for quite some time, and I actually found the round stones after the idea of spinning a round waterstone was conceived. My idea was to spin a round waterstone and create a jig that rus along the surface on T-Tracks so that you can attach whatever you want to sharpen, set the jig at the desired angle, and then slide it back and forth over the spinning stone. The stone would spin at a snail's pace- enough that it would not sling water. I actually searched for "Round Waterstone" and that is how I found these. Long story short- the price was low enough, and I was about to purchase a 1k Chosera anyway, so it was almost a no-brainer.

For flattening I had intended on trying to just slide the DMT Dia-Sharp over it longways, moving it front to back to flatten it, but that might not work, so I will instead just use sandpaper on a flat granite plate to flatten it. They do make an extra-large flattening stone, which I may invest in, but not until after I get a few more stones that I want.

I should clarify that I buy a new tool at least every month- and typically it is something that needs to be flattened. Probably this is overkill for the average Joe, but as an example, at the moment I have a full set of chisels and at least five plane irons that need to be flattened. This larger stone allows me to use a circular motion when flattening, and also allows a normal-sized chisel to be flattened end-to-end.

[ian maybury]

Powered rotating waterstone sharpeners do exist (including the classic Makita which might have a detailed user manual?), so it's got to be workable Malcolm There's some interesting possibilities for wear patterns though. (e.g.it could end up conical, or with a circular depression) Interesting question as to whether it would come flat just by planking a diamond plate on it across a diameter as it rotates. We had a nibble at the topic before without reaching any definite conclusions...

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I just pulled the trigger on the 320 round to go with this. I cannot imagine a better stone for flattening. With the size you could do a figure 8 with even a large plane iron. 320 should quickly flatten a back. I had to order from the Netherlands, so I expect it will take a few weeks to arrive. The only place I could find it was knivesandtools.nl

Now I just need the 10k to complete the family. Buying that shortly. I will do a video when it arrives to show the whole lineup and my plan is to flatten the backs of all my Veritas BU blades, which is about one for each stone, then take one per stone and show the scratch pattern at each progression. I need to see how many I have but I think I have enough for one per stone. One or two may be PMV11 but the rest are A1. I figured showing the scratch pattern on the back will be a good way to really see the difference in grits. I'll stop one at every grit so I can do a side-by-side comparison.

[Jim Koepke]

my plan is to flatten the backs of all my Veritas BU blades

Maybe it is just me, but my experience has been the crew working for Rob Lee gets them flatter than anything that gets "flattened" in my shop.

jtk

[Malcolm Schweizer]

True. Actually with Veritas you are really more polishing than flattening.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

The 320 round stone came today! The only place I found it other than in the UK where the exchange rate makes it to high, was at http://www.knivesandtools.nl/nl/pt/-...korrel-320.htm

Folks, if you do a lot of flattening of tools then this is the stone for you. Wow. Cuts fast, leaves a nice scratch pattern, and the almost 9" diameter gives plenty of room to flatten an entire blade in a circular pattern. Love this stone. I may have to get the 3k round and complete the set, but for now that's enough spending.