Shapton pro vs chosera progression
Hi ,
I am just staring out in the field of kosher slaughter. We work with knives that look very much like nakiris in terms of shape (for birds I use a 6 inch blade, for small mammals around 12 inches , and for big mammals 16 to 18 inches or so. Weighted is calibrated in order to minimize downward pressure of the blade such that if you let it it would cut in a axelike motion. We only slaughter with the full control of the human hand (so no pressure downward, just holding it up and moving back and forth). Our knives are required to be smooth and sharp, such that it can be shaved with and that the smoothness of the blade is without imperfection. I.e there are no nicks along the cutting edge , and such that when you run it along a finger nail it glides like butter without catching on a fingernail (we dont allow a nick the size of a hair being able to fit in it ).
That's just a little background. Our knives tend to be some form of stainless steel, razor steel , really depends. Since we like a good edge retention and ease of sharpening . Really as the metal gets better we update it . I also use cpm154 which acts like a carbon steel.
I am on the market for top notch set of splash and goes , I just have poured In 50 hours of research at least , so I have a general sense of literacy but only just as I am new to stones.
I've found naniwa chosera (pro), naniwa gouken , of course the superstones as well.
And from shapton the hamono no kuromaku (professional) series , which I seem to have found see more my speed than glass though I've used neither .
I've been told that a 220, 1000, hard 6000 or soft 8000, and a 10k+ would be good I'm thinking 12k (at least to learn the sharpening system of an expert in kosher slaughter/knife maker who will teach me ).
But then again there's a lot of knowledge out there from many countries and and different experts.
So I've been looking at those in particular. Firstly what would you reccomend in terms of progression? I know that the Japanese use three categories in a progression . I've been reccomended by Yui Senri
"We would recommend Chosera. #400 coarse for repairing. #1000 medium finishing for daily maintenance. #3000 for finishing"
It seems as though the favourite is chosera . I cant really added the entire progression with chosera though if its really the best I can save up for it. So I've been leaning towards shapton pro (kuromaku) since it's a pro line and it's really cheap .
I was interested in the naniwa gouken series and heard marvels about the 5k and 8k but I dont have access to enough data though I read every page on the net I could find .
But the problem is that with the shapton kuromaku aka professional are tough to peg in the traditional grit rating . People have pointed out there the 1k is like an 800 chosera. And people have said that 1.5k or 2k pro =1k chosera. Then I've read at least about shapton glass that 1.5k is a good stone for most metal and 2k for carbon steel. So that equation needs to be made for 120 vs 220 vs 320 etc.
And for the hard 6k or soft 8k same issue . So in stuck . Can you help me out with some insight ?