Thread: Advice on Selection of stones

Well then it seems you have time and steel to burn being as they are for family. I would still suggest a diamond 325 and 1k. Then, if money is no concern, some chosera's. Nice chunky hones that will last forever. Maybe finish on a natural. I love my diamond 1k for bevel setting. A lot of people say diamonds don't have feedback but they do. The razor just goes smooth and seems like its not cutting as fast as it should. Its subtle but its there. The 325 will allow you to get down to that edge where both sides meet and is very useful for when/if you need to remove a lot of steel fast. Also it can be used to lap your non-diamond stones as I already mentioned. You could do that with a 1k diamond just a little slower but saves you from having to buy 2 stones if you sacrifice some speed. Good luck on whatever you choose. Make sure you post some pics of the build. From start to finish preferably.

For your 1K stone, the Naniwa Chosera is hard to beat. If you're a bladesmith the Chosera will serve you well and you won't regret the decision.

Three stones has been enough for me also. If you're using 1095, steel doesn't get much plainer than that. You can use any type of stone you want to and get a fine edge with it as long as you don't leave it overhard/file hard.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Three stones has been enough for me also. If you're using 1095, steel doesn't get much plainer than that. You can use any type of stone you want to and get a fine edge with it as long as you don't leave it overhard/file hard.

Yeah I have to agree on this really. If you have time and you aren't trying to make a business of it, then three stones is enough. I have about ten stones and use three regularly. I use my 1k diamond for bevel setting and lapping, then a La Dressante Coti (not that the vein really matters) with heavy slurry and dilute to clear water, then I use oil on the coti, then I use a well broken in trans black arkansas stone. Its a cheap finisher that has stellar results. Of course I could and use to just use the diamond and coti and got perfectly acceptable results with that. I just like the arkie finish better.

You can do it with one stone. A coti. Not recommending it but many do just that. I prefer a wide range of synthetics as well as Jnats, naguras etc. I dont "need" them all but I want em. Theres only one way to know what you like and thats to try as many different edges as you can. One Jnat can produce many variations of the same edge from buttery coticule like, to shavette sharp with different finishing technique. If i had to do it all again, I would have what I have. No regret here at all.

I recently did some course bevel setting on the Naniwa workstone (1 and 3 K), realy soft synthetic and cheap hone, making a litle slurry on it will let you skip anything courser hone wise

(none of us know what type of edge you get straight from your grinder, how course/fine it is, or wheater the planes forming the edge are cenvex, concave or flat)

when you start honing on your stones, color the edge with a permanent marker to see if the entire bevel is making contact with your hone you decide on

I forgot one of the most important things everyone here has forgot to mention, we want to see some pictures of your work