Thread: The 1K hone

Ive had a Norton 1k (for me it was way to thirsty, soak it in water for 20 mins, lift out and its dry in 10 seconds) had a King 1k nice but soft needed flattening a lot as mentioned.
Ive been using the Naniwa Chosera 1k (or Professional as its called now) and its great, not the cheapest.

Im with alpla.
The Norton just wont hold water and your spending a lot of time adding water even after soaking. I love the corsera 1k. It does the job in all aspects. And the way i see it, you wont ever need another 1k stone for the rest of your life, unless you start honing everyones razors. I bet ive set bevel on close to 100 razors now and id have to use a caliper to see the ware compared to a new stone. Yes it is thinner, but after near 100 razors i see it lasting thru 2000 plus bevel settings. So the cost is worth it IMO.

Ive not used the King stone as i hear it is softer and leaves deeper scratches so i didnt even try it.

I use primarily 2 stones - Suehiro 1000-3000 and i have 1 King deluxe 1200 grit .
For heavy work i have SIc hard 600 or 800 oil stones or Diamond plate .
The real deal stone is Surhiro 1-3 K - blue - wellow side .Soft and agresive cuting stone .Very consistent , and good stone .
The 3 K wellow side is much finer than the other synthetycs 3000 grit stones that i have .
This stone is the better version of King 1000-6000 ice bear .Much better version and the prise is owtstanding .

Originally Posted by Gasman

Ive not used the King stone as i hear it is softer and leaves deeper scratches so i didnt even try it.

I've used the Kings, a lot, 800 & up on Jp kitchen knives & there is no way they leave deep scratches.
They are perfect for polishing & colouring the soft iron cladding on those knives.
What you see below is an 800 grit King finish

Just to summarize... let me know if I got it right. I'm very interested in lappability. I have had a lot of struggle flattening my Tyrolit stones.

Naniwa Chosera - super good but pricey. Stays flat.
Other Naniwas - very good an affordable
King - diverging opinions about the scratch pattern. Needs a lot of lapping
Suehiro - super good (finer than the grit would let you believe), not too pricey, stays flat

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

Just to summarize... let me know if I got it right. I'm very interested in lappability. I have had a lot of struggle flattening my Tyrolit stones.

Naniwa Chosera - super good but pricey. Stays flat.
Other Naniwas - very good an affordable
King - diverging opinions about the scratch pattern. Needs a lot of lapping
Suehiro - super good (finer than the grit would let you believe), not too pricey, stays flat

I would say that the Chosera stays pretty flat. It will still dish after extended use.

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

Just to summarize... let me know if I got it right. I'm very interested in lappability. I have had a lot of struggle flattening my Tyrolit stones.

Naniwa Chosera - super good but pricey. Stays flat.
Other Naniwas - very good an affordable
King - diverging opinions about the scratch pattern. Needs a lot of lapping
Suehiro - super good (finer than the grit would let you believe), not too pricey, stays flat

How much are you going to use it? I have a King 1k. Before I use it, I put a piece of wet/dry sandpaper on the countertop, turn the hone upside down and do a few passes on the sandpaper and that's it.

If you aren't using it a lot, it isn't going to need lapping a lot. If you do what I do it really never needs any more lapping.

You only need a 1k when bevel setting. How many bevels are you going to be setting?

I do a lot more knife sharpening than razor sharpening!
I would like to be able to use the same equipment for both, except for very fine grit hones. Those, I would reserve for the razors.

That being said, I won't sharpen stuff every day. Perhaps every week or two. As such, I'd also like to avoid buying a diamond stone just for the sake of lapping.

Would you please comment on the ease of flattening of these hones? I'm sure this is something others would take into consideration.

I'd expect something like a King hone, which has a soft-ish binder and dishes quickly, to flatten easily on a counter-top
At the other end of the spectrum, I'd expect a Sigma Power Select to be a pain to flatten, since this is a a super hard stone - I even heard it described as having nearly no binder.

I think my corsera took 15 to 20 minutes on a dmt325 to be flat. Some are worse some are flatter when you get them. But after that, i havent really needed to flatten it but once.

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

Just to summarize... let me know if I got it right. I'm very interested in lappability. I have had a lot of struggle flattening my Tyrolit stones.

Naniwa Chosera - super good but pricey. Stays flat.
Other Naniwas - very good an affordable
King - diverging opinions about the scratch pattern. Needs a lot of lapping
Suehiro - super good (finer than the grit would let you believe), not too pricey, stays flat

I would not say that the Suehiro combo stays flat relative to others. It's that the swarf that accumulates on the surface is more easily brushed off in comparison to other traditional Japanese synth stones (King, Naniwa traditional). But it is super good and not too pricey for razor use as far as I'm concerned, and the 3k side renders slurrying on coticules and Welsh slates moot. No problem in lapping it though, when the time comes.