My Chosera stone choice 

I once owned the Edge Pro. It is a pivot sharpening system and makes the edge andle far from the pivot very small. It was not a nice thing at all and I gave it away soon. Manual sharpening on Chosera stones is by far the best for any kinds of bevels. We need 3 stones for initial bevel reforming, for sharpening, and for finishing (reducing the scratches made by the sharpening stone before stropping). I recommend you the trio of 400/800/2000 strongly. Thanks.

Thank you. You speak slow, but you give a very honest opinion about the stones and why you like or dislike a stone. I very much appreciate your straightforward approach. Greetings from India! Subscribed.

I thank you very much for doing these videos in English. I'm learning a lot from you and appreciate your time in doing these, thank you!

I love watching your videos. The sharpening ones are my favorite. Very straight forward and relaxing videos to watch.

A set of Chosera stone would be a great addition to my knife maintenance set but they are just a little too expensive for me. Thanks for all of you great videos! David

I think it is a great tool for anyone. I agree with you, the he is extremely skilled. I have learned much from him. The convex edge was originally called the axe grind b/c that what it was used on. The force of a swung axe into wood required the edge to be different. I think he would be amused and pleased with it's simplicity and as his collection grows to have a way to touch up edges with it on select knives/hatchets that are made of thicker steel.

This channel is my RU-vid favourite. You does super videos!!! THANKS!!

Chosera stone is a ceramic containing artificial gem stones in my understanding. Chosera is cho-sera which means super-ceramics in Japanese. Thanks.

This will be my order. I like this choice of stones. I feel it will handle all my sharpening needs. Great video and thank you Dr. Wakosan

I have a 1×30 belt sander. I know of some steel suppliers and some heat treaters in Japan. I can make my own knife any day. But I have no intention to do it so far. I know it will make me another agony. Thanks.

I ordered 400/800/2000 grit Chosera Stones Yesterday!! Very Excited

If you are a Scandi lover, you will need 400/800/3000. If you are a convex lover, you will need 400/800/2000. If you are a hard steel lover, you will need 400/800/3000. In any cases you will need 400 and 800 for basic sharpening and trouble restoration. Only the finishing stone differs. 2000 is for faster finish. 3000 is for finer finish. If you strop with the black compound after stone sharpening, 3000 is completely useless. After 3000 you should go to the white compound directly. Thanks.

Thank you for your videos I learned a lot on sharpening with water stones. Regards from Barcelona Spain

Very nice shiny cutting edge. What a difference with the beginning. And You have a lot of stones also.Every stone you need for every fase of sharpening. Helpfull video,thank You.

No, not yet. I used their blue compound but it did nothing to the edge. Thanks.

Hi Doc, the water stones cut fast because they abrade quickly. They have to be flattened before every use. I take a pencil and make lines on the stone. I then have a DMT diamond flattening stone that I rub against the water stone until all the lines are gone. This will prevent dishing. Best John

I prefer Bark River white compound and have never used a super fine stone. Shapton Hano Kuromaku series has a very fine stone at an acceptable price. Thanks.

Hello John, I personally like a slightly convex bevel both for hunting and for bushcraft. So I prefer fuzzy leather finish to strict stone finish. Anyway my hand rotates a bit on the stone even if I pay attention not to make it happen. So I flatten the stone after the dishing gets unbearable. Thanks.

Thank you, your edges are very well done. So I figured that these would be very good for sharpening.

Your sharpening style goes against everything I've learned in America, but it obviously works incredibly well, and produces some of the most beautiful edges and blades I've ever seen. I'm sixty-one years old, but it seems I have a great deal to learn. It is a pleasure watching you work, especially since you seem to enjoy it so much.

Thank you for making this video, it was very well done!

Thank you for showing your sharpening system. :)

Beautiful knife, love the drop point.Great looking pins.

@Schizm101- I agree, the little WorkSharp Grinder is no good (despite great reviews) and can ruin a nice knife: rounding the tip, folding an edge, or even damaging the blade's factory shape. Stropping with the paddle and BR white compound as suggested is far superior and will not harm your most valuable knives.

Thanks for the advice and tips!

That polish was beautiful for a 2k grit stone. That bark River compound is the deal!

Thank you for the detailed video

Thank you. I see. I once experienced the edge centering problem. Viewed from the edge side the edge was shifted to one side very badly. Viewed from a side there was no ricasso line while the other side the recasso line was very deep. I personally say it is the edge centering problem. Their production happens to be wrong for sure. Recently they make too many knives to keep their quality control IMO.

#800 is 4000 yen. #2000 is 5000 yen. Their domestic shipping is 1000 yen. So in total they are 10.000 yen which is around 120 dollars.

Thanks so much Wako!! Great formula thanks for sharing!!

And I agree about the "beautiful frame"...but the edge is also beautiful!

I have to agree with your choice of stones and strops. I really love the edge on the chosera 2k stone just in itself very versatile edge. I have 6k, 8k and 10 k stones but they do not do as good as a job as compounds and are also much more expensive.

Great video, superb sharpening skills.

Good choice of stones

Thank you for this video, I enjoyed very much watching it. Chosera is in my opinion by far the best Stone maker one can purchase from. I've owned many Japanese water stones over the years but have not tryed the 400 grit Chosera. It seems soft by your video but that is not a bad thing. Burfection prefers the 800 and the 3000 as his go to stones. I will have to try the 400 now.

I now have a small number of 154CM knives. They are Gavkoo custom knife and Benchmade Griptillian. I sold out my 154CM Bark River Classic Lite Hunter and 154CM Gerber Gator folder. I know 154CM definitely holds longer than 420HC or such. Benchmade 551 Griptillian is a long seller knife and I love mine very much. Thanks.

Thank you for the video. Very well done Sir.

The water stone is very heavy and the shipping is huge. It's almost useless and I don't need it if you want it. Thanks.

Yes. It is a leather strop. DLT trading > Bark River knives > Bark River sharpening > Two sided paddle strop. Thanks.

Thank you Sir! I appreciate it greatly. I hope one say to get some:)

You should straighten youre 400 grit stone and get it completely flat. It is very difficult to maintain a constant grinding angle when the stone is curved due to wear. Recommends a good flattening stone like Naniwa or a coarse diamond sharpener.

ten years ago. wow. Well. The 5k is a great stone, but it's a finisher/polisher. Ofc it wont sharpen anything other than razor. For the strop, I much prefer to use birch wood surface rather than leather. I like to use diamonds for abrasive. Between 1 um and 5 um for a knife. My first chosera was 400, 1k, 3k and 10k. Later I got others. The most useful stone for the knife is for sure the lowest grit choseras. By the 1k it's very fine and slow. The 2k is good also. The 3k is very hard smooth and slow.. great for remove burr. The 5k and 10k is for finish polish. Both are very excellent for this task but honestly I like Super Stones, 5k and 12k more for this use. Overall, shapton glass seems to be a higher quality product, more strong abrasive, much faster, also very hard and precise friablility. It's just different. The chosera feels unique but the grinding performance for stainless steels is below shapton glass for sure.

Beautiful edge.

Maybe you didn’t intend to as you mentioned before and during sharpening, but by habit (muscles memory) you ended up with a natural convex secondary edge. Beautiful ✨

Hello Mark, I have never used the DC4. But I guess we cannot use our two hands to settle the sharpening angle on it. The most important thing is stone quality. The second important thing is how we settle the angle during the sharpening motion. I hold the handle with my right hand and put my left fingers on the spine to sharpen the left side and on the line between the blade and the stone to sharpen the right side where my fingers touch and rub the stone. Thanks.

I really think I am going to invest in a quality sharpening system but I don't know if I should invest in an EdgePro Apex or in a Chosera Stone set. Any thoughts? With the chosera's would you be able to do all grinds like Scandi, V, and Convex? If I were to go with Chosera, what 3 stones would you suggest? I have a Strop for finishing work. I think the EdgePro looks great but I am wondering what you think will make me a better and more well rounded knife sharpener? Thank You!! Mark

I use chosera 400.1000 and 3000.After I compound ​​it black and white. so I'm happy.

Virtuvoice, you have by far the best knife-related videos on YT. I'd appreciate some tips on how to put a good edge on the Cold Steel's Kobun and Helle 75 ars Jubileum Regards. Bart

The blade seems like Jants' pattern 22 made of 440C stainless steel. After cutting my regular edge testing pine wood apart it held its edge decently. So I don't think it's a wrong steel. I will do it again and video it. Thanks.

No. Some webstes in the US don't seem very expensive to me considering the shipping cost from Japan. Water stones are very heavy and the shipping cost depends on the weight. They deserve the money even in the US IMO. Thanks.

No. In my experience Bark River black compound comprises pretty large abrasive particles and grinds much metal to make the bevel convex. But Enkay green compounds comprises pretty fine abrasive particles and grinds metal not so much but surely so that the bevel doesn't go convex much and keep its flatness. I love Enkay green compound for the maintenance of all my edges. Thanks.

Wow... Excellent review.. Keep it up!

I ever saw it on RU-vid. It was a small belt sander. I have a 1×30 belt sander myself. I cannot control its speed and I am prone to grinding steel too much. So I don't use it for sharpening edges at all and I use water stones and a leather strop for that purpose all the time. Thanks.

I have never tried very fine natural waterstones. I know my hands are not very stable during sharpening and my edges are always slightly convex. So I prefer fine polishing compounds. A single exception is a Scandi edge. I can stabilize it on the stone. Thanks.

You are a wonderful instructor. I appreciate your perspective I am thankful that you share it. Have you ever seen or tried the WorkSharp tool for convex edges? It is very unconventional and it's grit choices unusual but it seems to get a good result.

Your content is the best

I cannot make the edge razor sharp without stropping. For that purpose Bark River white compound or Enkay green compound is essential to me. The difference between the two compounds seems a little. The Enkay green compound seems a bit coarser. Thanks.

It depends also on the Metal your knife is made of, greater then 3000 is more polishing stone but can make carbon steel also even a bit more sharper.

after much hesitation i bought a work sharp. they are not for ppl like Wako , he is a true edge artist. i consider it to be a waste of money, i could of bought another chosera stone and wish i did instead of buying it. but it does have it uses for hand tools, axes but i wont use it on a knife again ,besides a cheap machete or something.

Little Creek looks like a very sweet and nice looking knife. But I have no purposes for it. Thank you.

I personally don't use Nagura stone because Chosera stones themselves produce good slurry. But I will need to show people how Nagura stone works. The white compound loaded leather works very fine to me and I don't use finer stones than 2000. Thanks.

I have all the enkay compounds and the black green and white are excellent. The brown is ok but only for soft stainless

I use that compound but sometimes I don't need to resharpen my knife bur just a little hone it, smooth the chips and put some polish on blade and than after honing put finishing polish on strop. I will check the stones you recommend me! Thank you!

Thank you sir! I think I will make a stand to hold the stone so I can use 2 hands to guide the blade. Mark

I don't strop anymore. I use only stones and I've found my edges have much more bite to them. The can shave pushcut but still have the extra fine Micro serrations that cut meat and zip ties etc much better

I have every Chosera stone and other different naniwas, my favorites are the 400, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 10k. My least favorite is the 800grit, there is almost no purpose for it as the 1000 is everything it just isn't. I like the 5k too just took awhile to break in

I love my Gunny SS in black canvas micarta very much. It's a handle heavy knife for sure. If yours had a G10 handle, it would be more handle heavy. But I still love my orange G10 rampless Gunny very much. In my opinion the handle heavy knife is more controllable in precise cutting. I don't know what you mean with your grind lines. Sometimes Bark River knives leave its factory flaw micro V edge a bit. But in my experience it was removed easily. I like its bevel geometry very much. Thanks.

I am really wanting to become more proficient at free hand sharpening. Eventually I will save for some 400, 800, & 3000 Chosera stones but until then all I have is a Fallkniven DC4 and a paddle strop that I just ordered. What are your thoughts on the DC4? Is it a good stone to practice on before I save for the Chosera stones? Thank you for all the time and effort you put into you videos. I really enjoy them!! Mark

Ps. Would you ever consider doing a review on a bark river Little Creek? I want to get one badly but would like to see a review from you first.

I use the same brand of stones. But I do use 400,1000,3000. You posted this in 2012. Has your opinion changed on the Bark River Green.

Doc, you answered a query of mine once before about Nagura stones. May I suggest that the next time you make a video on sharpening stones, you include a couple of minutes explaining the important difference between the conditioning stone included with every Chosera stone and the Nagura stone which is usually bought separately. Many people here do not understand the difference or have it wrong. Also, do you not use the 5k/10k like a strop? Many thanks.

I agree, I suspect the first one would be less than perfect, so we would have the pleasure of watching the good doctor grow into a serious knifesmith. Come on Doc, how about it??

Superbe! Greetings from Montreal Canada!

Thank you for quick response. Really enjoy all your videos. What 3 chosera stones do you recommend to start with. I have a strop for polishing. Would also like to send you some photos of my recent deer hunting and bucks I got. New to RU-vid - how can I Mail you a package? Thank you for all the advice & education. Best of luck next hunting season my friend!

knives that small but one day I hope to pair it with the Gunny, both with black ebony handles. I think they would make the perfect primary and secondary knife set:) So please let me know your thoughts and if you ever get a Little Creek I would love to hear your opinion of it. Again, thanks for all you do! Blessings, Mark

if you like the side holding grip look at the bubba blades line

Hi Dr. Wako- Do you use the green and then the white compound or just green? Also, is it ever necessary to heat the compound before applying it to the leather before stropping ?

Your knife seems to have a very hard core steel from their website. It is a 3mm thick blade and I guess its edge is very delicate and kind of easy to take another chipping during the restoration. I have #120 and #220 coarse stones to restore major chippings of my hatchet or to reprofile the total bevel geometry of my hunting knives. But I cannot recommend such coarse stones for your knife. Chosera #400 seems just appropriate for the delicate chipping restoration lika yours. Thanks.

That thumbnail worn away from enough sharpening and grinding i bet. Nice video

👍

i would like to hear how this blade holds up to use, i have thought of buying some of them and making handles but i was worried the steel would be not very good

I have a request for you sir, the emperor of knives! A couple years back my cousin gave me a Case "Sod Buster JR." and i think it is such a great simple little pocket knife. I have always hoped to find a fixed blade that reminded me of it. Then you turned me on to BRKT knives and I discovered the "Little Creek", it is the fixed blade sod buster! Have you ever owned one? I would absolutely love to see a review by you on the little creek before I save to purchase one. I know you don't have many

Thx very much

Virtuvoice: I broke my neck in 3 places & am disabled due to paralysis. Is there any way to buy stones from Japen a bit cheaper and pay for shipping to the US? They are quite expensive here in the states. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

What are the size and makeup of the chosera stones Thank You John

Have you ever tried the Enkay white compound as opposed to the bark River white compound?

I bought the old 400 grit chosera, the one that comes with the nagura. All of the packaging and stone seem correct, but I must say it is NOT splash and go. It only needed to be soaked for a minute or two but I am really suspicious that water did not simply pool on top like it does with my shaptons. Anyone else Chosera stones absorb water readily?

Sir. I need extra extra fine stone (finishing/polishing), but I cant give a way huge money amount, so maybe you know cheap / inexpensive water stone extra fine grit for money amount till 50$?

I have king japanese water stones I have 800 1000 and 6000 I was wondering if I was to buy an chosera stone what one would u think I should get?

i know I'm off topic but what are your feelings on 154cm steel, and what knives do you like that are made in 154cm?

Hello, how much do the 800 grit and 2000 grit Chosera stones cost in Japan?

rouge is purely polishing compund nothing more, thats why its called jewelers compund

отличный нож,чувак!

The shipping cost to Europe by EMS is 30 euros. The price is 20 euros. In total 50 euros. I don't think it's a good purchase for you. Thanks.

Day*.

I got boss Bild katana edge

And the rouge has no cut at all

i hope you flattened that chosera 400 lmfao

★★★★★

very nicely done.