Thread: The REAL holy grail of hones?

Welcome, Joel. I've ordered several things from you and really enjoy drooling over your catalog.

Many of us use natural finishing stones in the 10k range give or take a few thousands; Coticules and Thuringians to name a few.

A hot stone for an increasing number of us (myself included) is the 16K Shapton Ceramic on Glass for about $100. That stone gives us edges keener than most of us would ever want them, without sacrificing shaving comfort (not sharp for the sake of simply being sharp).

Me lead in is not intended to preemptively shoot down the Chosera 10k. I'm a rabid honing stone fan of all types. Can you explain to us how a 10K rated stone may meet or even exceed performance of a Shapton 16K for example? Does the Chosera 10K slurry start at 10K and break down during the honing process to a finer grit? And if so, any ideas of where it ends up?

Your promise of customer service is very refreshing and great to hear as well. Other vendors with direct ties to SRP have given us such great service that we're lucky to have them around. We appreciate that type of thing and tend to be very loyal!

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chris L

Welcome, Joel. I've ordered several things from you and really enjoy drooling over your catalog.

Many of us use natural finishing stones in the 10k range give or take a few thousands; Coticules and Thuringians to name a few.

A hot stone for an increasing number of us (myself included) is the 16K Shapton Ceramic on Glass for about $100. That stone gives us edges keener than most of us would ever want them, without sacrificing shaving comfort (not sharp for the sake of simply being sharp).

Me lead in is not intended to preemptively shoot down the Chosera 10k. I'm a rabid honing stone fan of all types. Can you explain to us how a 10K rated stone may meet or even exceed performance of a Shapton 16K for example? Does the Chosera 10K slurry start at 10K and break down during the honing process to a finer grit? And if so, any ideas of where it ends up?

Your promise of customer service is very refreshing and great to hear as well. Other vendors with direct ties to SRP have given us such great service that we're lucky to have them around. We appreciate that type of thing and tend to be very loyal!

Chris L

Chris,
I haven't used the shapton 16K stone but people I respect prefer the 10K Chosera stone. How a stone behaves has much more to do with the hardness and sharpness of the abrasive, how it breaks down, and how the binder works than the nominal grit. Not to mention the amount of abrasive in the stone compared to the binder. The CHosera stone is a very high tech stone with the abrasive suspended in a way to seperate it and keep the grains of abrasive indiviudally surrouned with a magnesia binder.

To me part of the appeal of Naniwa stones is not just the speed and sharpening and the quality of the edge but the feel of the stone. I love the feel of the choseras - it's fun to use. Also I like a softer stone because it is easier to maintain. It's a personal thing and the Choseras are not for everyone just as any stone isn't automatically for everyone.

Ps I have used lots of shaptons - just not the 16K

Thanks, Joel. Knowing my HAD (Hone Acquisition Disorder), I see this stone at some point in my future; especially knowing your offer that if it just doesn't seem to work for me/others, you'd take it back. As you can see, we've talked about the Chosera a bit. Our ultimate test of such a stone (the 10k) rather than cutting food or wood is shaving comfortably.

I'm sure you'll hear more from us.

Chris L

Thanks for posting Joel! My intent by starting this thread wasn't to say the stone was or wasn't as good as I had heard, but really to see if anyone had in fact used it for straights. I do appreciate your input! I'm not really one to get into real stone cravings (HAD) and try a ton of honing options as we know it can be expensive, but this sounded like a finishing stone one might never want to replace. Hopefully someone will eventually test it out here and we can see the response. Care to trade for some nice shave ready straights with custom scales?

Originally Posted by Philadelph

Thanks for posting Joel! My intent by starting this thread wasn't to say the stone was or wasn't as good as I had heard, but really to see if anyone had in fact used it for straights. I do appreciate your input! I'm not really one to get into real stone cravings (HAD) and try a ton of honing options as we know it can be expensive, but this sounded like a finishing stone one might never want to replace. Hopefully someone will eventually test it out here and we can see the response. Care to trade for some nice shave ready straights with custom scales?

I didn't for a second think anyone was anything other than curious. My solution of course is get the stone and if you don't like it return it. The trade idea is very tempting and I might take you up on it - but truthfully the kind of straight I want is something brand new from 1910 - high end then with MOP scales- but not so rare I can't use it. And even if one turned up I am afraid to get it - I have too many collections and if I get some straight that fits the bill I know I'm going to start collecting them and I just can't - it's not just the time learning about what to get and how - it's not just the time to make sure the collection is stored correctly along with the books and bookmarks, it's everything I try learning these days means something else drops out of my brain - so starting any new collection is a big commitment.

joel