Thread: Hone Purchase Advice

There is no doubt that the Chosera 1k is the best bevel setter but in the OP you had specified 'economical.' An ideal setup to my mind would be the Cho 1k, single grit Norton 4k & 8k, the Naniwa 12k, and either a DMT D8C for economy, or if you want to go whole hog, an Atoma 1200 diamond plate. The single grit Nortons are 1" thick, can be turned on their side for honing warped or weird grinds, and you don't have to soak the 8k. More $ for the initial investment but you'll never wear them out.

Really any 1k will work, but you will never regret the Chosera 1K or the 12k Super Stone purchase, they are one time purchases. The middle stones do not matter as much. Buying the best bevel setter and no brain finisher, is economical… in the long run.

First learn on quality synthetic stones… then once you got it down, if you wish, move into Natural finishers.

Minimize the variables and set yourself up for success.

looks like you have gotten many opinions, advice, and suggestions so far. Carry on.

Sometimes getting the norton 220/1000 combo instead of the 1000 could be a little cheaper even though the 220 side is not too useful. You aren't going to hone lots of razors so you could just get any solid set of hones a 1k (norton, king, naniwa), the norton 4k/8k and be done for now. If you end up getting more razors and honing them by the hundreds then you could try other hones and potentially replace some of the initial ones with others you prefer better.

Hopefully this is considered on-topic: would the "knife and tool guys" say that the 220 side has any use for non-SR purposes, or no?

I'm certainly not a knife guy, but it's a coarse hone that removes steel fast. Knives are usually softer than razors, so that removal is even faster. If there's a serious damage a coarse hone makes the job go much faster. This also applies to razors, but if there is a damage that needs 220 grit hone to be fixed in reasonable time I wouldn't be fixing it in the first place and throw it away.

Knives have a lot more metal than razors though so even a moderately deep chips are worth fixing if it won't take forever.

I came to razors from knives, and I'd say the answer is "no" in a word. I wondered why razor folks had such coarse stones and diamond plates. The reason is that if you need to cut faster on a knife, you can push very hard on a 1-5k stone and that works. If you push hard on a razor while honing, a lot of things can happen and none of them are good. So if you need to remove a chip, defect, niggle, whatever and don't want to spend the rest of your life doing it, you need coarser hones. JMO.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by deepweeds

Hopefully this is considered on-topic: would the "knife and tool guys" say that the 220 side has any use for non-SR purposes, or no?

Actually, just checked out a local wood place and found the Norton stones in the shop, and they are reasonably priced (and no wait on shipping) . However, they have all combo stones, but they have the full spread of them. Wondering if I don't start off with just the Nortons for now. Question though, I know I need a 1k, 4k, 8k . . . but if they are all reasonably priced combos, then what do you double up on? The set with the 220/1k means that 1 out of 4 of the grits is worthless, so why not buy two stones, four sides, all useable?

1) 1k/8k
2) 1k/4k
3) 4k/8k

So . . . any recommendation there?

To be honest here, I used to be the first to recommend the Nortons, but over the years I have started to drift over to recommending the Naniwa SS, they honestly just have a more SR friendly "Feel" to them.. The Norton 4k lapping issues have also been a source of problems for new guys over the past few years, once lapped they are fine but getting them dialed in can be frustrating

For a new honer their 1-3-8 would do you very well, the edge off the 8k is no better then the Norton 8k IMHO but the feel while honing is way nicer at the lower grits.. You can easily add the 12k down the road or do the buy in the reverse.. Get the 12k to learn routine Touch up / Maintenance the buy the lower grits as you get deeper into the hobby..

Spent my 2 cents


ps: Either way will work just fine

The Chosera 1K is on sale at Edenwebshops at the moment, they are in Europe so shipping may take 1-2 weeks but the price is nice. I think, with shipping over the pond, it's about $60-65.
Naniwa Chosera 1000 sharpening stone without stand | knivesandtools.co.uk