Video showing all the Naniwa Chosera (Professional) grits compared side-by-side.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

As I had promised in another thread, I did a video to show all the Chosera (aka Naniwa Professional) grits side-by-side. I took all my Veritas A2 irons and progressed up the grits, stopping at each grit, so in other words the video shows all the stones with one iron flattened on the back to that particular grit. This much better lets you see the scratch pattern versus trying to see it on the edge of the iron. You can also see the Chosera round stones, including the 320 grit, which is only available in the round stone.

So here is the link to the video:

https://youtu.be/V_psHMbYIQQ

The reason I did this video is when I was looking at various options for Japanese Waterstones, I found very few videos that really showed you a side-by-side comnparison of the various grits, and those that did were all knife videos that show you only a tiny edge and you really could not see the difference very well.
I do comment at the end about progressing through the grits versus, for instance, jumping from 1k to 5k, but other than that the video is just to show you the scratch patterns so you can choose which grit is better for you.

Enjoy!

[Brian Holcombe]

Very informative, thank you! I may add a 2k and 5k to my process, I do see some faint scratches if I move too quickly.

[John Kananis]

Thanks for posting this - enjoyed it.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Great video! thank you for taking the time!

I have 1 question and a comment. I have the chosera 800 and 3000, love them both. I'm adding a sigma SII 10K to the line up. I usually prefer to use only 2 stone for regular work, but I find that it's best to start then on a finer stone such as a 2k or so. I've only use a bester 2k and it cut more than fast enough to raise a burr, so I'm wondering if maybe the chosera 2k would be a good choice? the 3k cuts much too finely to remove the wear from an iron, and I've looked all over for reviews but cut find anything that tells me if the 2k is a metal remover or a much finer stone like the 3k. btw, the Sigma "SII" 1.2k works great for this, but it needs a long soak.

my comments is that is you file a few grooves, maybe in a # pattern, in the bottom of your 10k nagura, it probably won't stick nearly as strongly, and maybe even not at all.

Thanks again!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Great video! thank you for taking the time!

I have 1 question and a comment. I have the chosera 800 and 3000, love them both. I'm adding a sigma SII 10K to the line up. I usually prefer to use only 2 stone for regular work, but I find that it's best to start then on a finer stone such as a 2k or so. I've only use a bester 2k and it cut more than fast enough to raise a burr, so I'm wondering if maybe the chosera 2k would be a good choice? the 3k cuts much too finely to remove the wear from an iron, and I've looked all over for reviews but cut find anything that tells me if the 2k is a metal remover or a much finer stone like the 3k. btw, the Sigma "SII" 1.2k works great for this, but it needs a long soak.

my comments is that is you file a few grooves, maybe in a # pattern, in the bottom of your 10k nagura, it probably won't stick nearly as strongly, and maybe even not at all.

Thanks again!

The 2k is just fine for your situation. It makes a thick slurry very fast and in a few strokes it turns black with metal removed. It takes a lot of water and has to be constantly rewetted. Since you already have the 800, the 2k is a perfect step. You should be able to go straight to the 2k unless you have some nicks or let the tool get really dull.

I am considering turning the 10k nagura into a slipstone but for now I don't want to mess it up.

[Mike Brady]

Do you use an eight stone progression in your routine? or do you skip stones? If you skip stones, how do you make that determination? Do you always hone the entire back of each iron? It appears that you have in your video. Do you always end on your finest stone? My last question is: If you rebuying these stones, which four of the eight would you consider indispensible? Thanks for going to the trouble of making such an organized video.

[Paul McGaha]

Thanks for taking the time to make the video Malcolm. I really liked it.

PHM

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Do you use an eight stone progression in your routine? or do you skip stones? If you skip stones, how do you make that determination? Do you always hone the entire back of each iron? It appears that you have in your video. Do you always end on your finest stone? My last question is: If you rebuying these stones, which four of the eight would you consider indispensible? Thanks for going to the trouble of making such an organized video.

I really wanted to make the disclaimer, "You do not need all of these stones..." but my wife was filming, and that would be like saying, "I didn't need to spend this much money." I have said before and should have mentioned here that for me sharpening in itself is a hobby, so I enjoy experimenting with different stones.

All good questions. Do I use the whole progression? No, except when flattening backs or when honing a new bevel or new tool. If I am working with a tool and it gets dull, then I usually go 3k, 5k, 10k, and strop, but if it was some tough wood and the tool is very dull then I go down to 1k or 2k. If I were to skip a stone, it would probably be the 600 and 800 because with that big round 1k you can take a lot of material off really quick. Of all the stones I like the 600 the least because it is very hard to get a slurry on, and it doesn't cut quite as fast as the 400 or 800, but I will say that it leaves the most uniform scratch pattern of all of them, so it's a catch 22. When I started out I got the 400, 1k, 3k, and 5k. I already had Shaptons so I would use the 8k and 16k shapton if honing a razor or if honing for very difficult wood. I should have mentioned that after the 5k you're splitting hairs (literally!) and you can do most work with honing to 5k. Remember- I am an admitted sharpaholic, but I want people to know that 5k will do the job just fine for most work. If on a budget and wanted to go past 5k, I would suggest an 8k Snow White Naniwa, or a Shapton PRO. ....so again, the four that I consider indespensible are the 400 (for fixing chips and flattening), 1k, 3k, 5k. (The 800 could be substituted for the 1k)

Do I always flatten the whole back? With Veritas this is actually easy because they come so flat that you really just have to polish the back. The main reason I do the whole back is that I live in the tropics and battle rust. A polished surface is less likely to hold contaminants and moisture, and therefore less likely to rust. I actually even do a quick polish (but nothing fancy) on the face of the iron just to knock off milling marks and fend off rust. For Lie Nielsen, Hock, and other Irons or other tools (chisels, etc.) I flatten until the edge is flat. I do not use the "card trick" where you raise the tool up slightly with a card to make it easier to flatten just the edge. This is personal preference- I am a big geek who actually likes to flatten tools and enjoys the challenge. That said, there is one exception, and that is my LN #4 which I keep "Lamborghini tuned" for the most difficult woods. I use a lot of highly figured woods in my work. That one I flatten both sides of the iron and polish it, and do the same with the chipbreaker. You coulnd't fita split atom under that chipbreaker. This was mostly done out of experimentation, and I'm not saying there is a huge difference, but I can tell you beyond any shadow of a doubt; that plane smooths better than any other. With the 320 round stone it is so easy to flatten tools that really there is no reason to take the short-cut. It's very quick.

[Jim Koepke]

Malcolm,

Thanks for taking the time.

This should be the thread we link to when someone has a question about which stones they should buy.

jtk

[Dave Beauchesne]

Malcolm:
Thanks so much for taking the time for making the informative video.
Also, thank the camera crew and the cheering section!!
Dave Beauchesne

[Derek Cohen]

As I had promised in another thread, I did a video to show all the Chosera (aka Naniwa Professional) grits side-by-side. I took all my Veritas A2 irons and progressed up the grits, stopping at each grit, so in other words the video shows all the stones with one iron flattened on the back to that particular grit. This much better lets you see the scratch pattern versus trying to see it on the edge of the iron. You can also see the Chosera round stones, including the 320 grit, which is only available in the round stone.

So here is the link to the video:

https://youtu.be/V_psHMbYIQQ

The reason I did this video is when I was looking at various options for Japanese Waterstones, I found very few videos that really showed you a side-by-side comnparison of the various grits, and those that did were all knife videos that show you only a tiny edge and you really could not see the difference very well.
I do comment at the end about progressing through the grits versus, for instance, jumping from 1k to 5k, but other than that the video is just to show you the scratch patterns so you can choose which grit is better for you.

Enjoy!

Hi Malcolm

Many thanks for this video. It was very informative. You did a great job of keeping it as concise as you have for the wide range of stones you demoed.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Erwin Graween]

Hi Malcom,

Great thread. I have a question about the 400 stone, if I may ask. What do you use then to flatten it since it's on the larger grit side already ? Diamond stone, sand paper ?
I have the 1K and use a 320 diamond stone to flatten it. But I hardly think i could use the same diamond stone to flatter a 400 waterstone.

Regards.