# Ready for my next stone. Soakers or Splash and Go?



## donhoang14 (Jun 10, 2018)

I've read about the differences here and there on this forum before but I've forgotten. Can anyone do a run down on what the min differences are, pros & cons and why they have a preference for one or the other?

I've been using cheap stone I got from my local store for awhile and I think I'm ready to buy a decent stone now. By decent, I've been reading so much about how everyone loves the chosera series

I work in a kitchen and I need to sharpen often, so I guess splash and go would make it more convenient for me? I'm usually tired after work so I want a stone that would sharpen fast and I wouldn't have to wait for it to soak. I guess Chosera would be a good fit for me?


----------



## daveb (Jun 10, 2018)

The first tidbit I'll offer is that Soaking and Splash.... is not about getting wet, it's about getting them dry. Soakers will take some time to soak but not a prohibitive amount. It's the couple days of drying before putting them away that doesn't work for me. S&G will get wet marginally faster but will dry overnight. If you can't perma soak the soakers I suggest the S&G.


----------



## K813zra (Jun 11, 2018)

I agree with Dave, like usual. But beyond that I will say that I like the way soaking stones feel in use better. Not always but usually. However not enough so to use them as my mainstay. In fact, I almost exclusively use naturals these days but when I don't, I use mostly splash and go stones.

As for drying, if you still want to go with soakers but can not permasoak then something like a shoe or dish rack will be your best friend. You can set 'em and forget 'em.


----------



## GeneH (Jun 11, 2018)

As a home user I'm doing well with 4 grits of soaking stones in a small covered plastic container, just refreshing the water every couple of weeks. It's actually easier to put that away than have stones sitting out drying and being concerned about drying too fast if I spent a lot of time on them. I don't have any more water mess either - just a paper towel under the stones to catch any extra water.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 11, 2018)

daveb said:


> The first tidbit I'll offer is that Soaking and Splash.... is not about getting wet, it's about getting them dry. Soakers will take some time to soak but not a prohibitive amount. It's the couple days of drying before putting them away that doesn't work for me. S&G will get wet marginally faster but will dry overnight. If you can't perma soak the soakers I suggest the S&G.



I've seen the term "permasoak" so many times in this forum and now it finally hits me. It means to permanently soak yes? If so, are all stones able to permasoak?


----------



## daveb (Jun 11, 2018)

Yes that's what it means and no you can't perma-soak all of them.

It's good for soakers as described above. It serves no purpose with most s&g though it can be done. But some s&g will begin to dissolve or otherwise break down with too much exposture to water. That's not a good thing.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 11, 2018)

K813zra said:


> I agree with Dave, like usual. But beyond that I will say that I like the way soaking stones feel in use better. Not always but usually. However not enough so to use them as my mainstay. In fact, I almost exclusively use naturals these days but when I don't, I use mostly splash and go stones.
> 
> As for drying, if you still want to go with soakers but can not permasoak then something like a shoe or dish rack will be your best friend. You can set 'em and forget 'em.



So natural stones don't need to soak then?


----------



## K813zra (Jun 12, 2018)

donhoang14 said:


> So natural stones don't need to soak then?



I haven't found it necessary with those stones that I currently own or have owned in the past. There are those who do soak some natural stones though. I am not one of them. (I am way, way too paranoid and haven't thought I needed to give it a go anyway.)


----------



## bookgeek97 (Jun 13, 2018)

For somebody like me who views sharpening as "I'll do it when I need to, but there's only 24 hours in a day...", there was a huge benefit with quality splash and go stones. 

They really did eliminate the (perceived) effort to get a sharpening session or touch-up in. In comparison when I had my rika--which was admittedly never permasoaked--it was just one more step to plan in advance and what have you. I noticed I started sharpening more frequently w/ my Choseras simply because it was easy to (and the 800 cuts pretty fast), which in turn helped me get more practice in.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 14, 2018)

K813zra said:


> I haven't found it necessary with those stones that I currently own or have owned in the past. There are those who do soak some natural stones though. I am not one of them. (I am way, way too paranoid and haven't thought I needed to give it a go anyway.)



Ok thanks. I'm still quite far from starting my journey with naturals but this is good information for me!


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 14, 2018)

bookgeek97 said:


> For somebody like me who views sharpening as "I'll do it when I need to, but there's only 24 hours in a day...", there was a huge benefit with quality splash and go stones.
> 
> They really did eliminate the (perceived) effort to get a sharpening session or touch-up in. In comparison when I had my rika--which was admittedly never permasoaked--it was just one more step to plan in advance and what have you. I noticed I started sharpening more frequently w/ my Choseras simply because it was easy to (and the 800 cuts pretty fast), which in turn helped me get more practice in.



This was the perfect response that I needed. Working as a professional chef takes enough time out of my life. I was hoping for what you just described above: putting enough time in when I can to keep my knives in decent shape. 

I'm pretty much sold on a Chosera 800 and maybe even a set. I get the feeling I'll be using these for some time before I decide to upgrade or change. But that's even if I decide to upgrade or change.


----------



## masibu (Jun 18, 2018)

For what it's worth I still think the majority of splash stones still benefit from even a 5 minute soak. The chosera 5k feels terrible to me unless its soaked for a bit before hand but it also cant be permasoaked, putting it in the "too much work" category. I found it way more convenient to keep soaking stones permasoaked so they would be ready to go whenever I wanted. The sigma power stones feel relatively hard (even once soaked) and don't tend to dish easily. King/suehiro classic stones are a lot softer, smoother/creamier and are reasonably cheap. They aren't exotic stones but they get the job done fast enough so long as you maintain flatness regularly. 

The chosera stones are good stones but not worth what you pay for. They weren't cheap even before they rebranded and increased their prices when i had them several years ago. If you are set on getting them though I would go for the 800 and the 3000. After that you might be inclined to get an 8k finisher (either the super stone 5k or snow white 8k work well after the chosera 3k and are also splash n go, although the ss responds to a brief soak very well. It also polishes higher than its grit would have you believe) and probably a coarse stone such as the king deluxe 300 (which is a nice and hard splash and go which doesn't dish easily- making it excellent for chip repair and minor thinning jobs). 

There is no reason to 'upgrade' from these stones but it is very easy to fall into a stone hole along with several knives once you start experimenting with how different knives respond to each stone.


----------



## galvaude (Jun 18, 2018)

Im done with splash and go stones. I much prefer the feel of soakers, most of them are cheaper and most of the time are easier when an even finish is important. 

Most people rave about the choseras/pro having nice feedback, I guess they never tried a kings, Rika 5000 and most suehiro or a bester 1000...

I permasoak them at home with no probleme, usually changing water every 1-2 week.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 19, 2018)

masibu said:


> For what it's worth I still think the majority of splash stones still benefit from even a 5 minute soak. The chosera 5k feels terrible to me unless its soaked for a bit before hand but it also cant be permasoaked, putting it in the "too much work" category. I found it way more convenient to keep soaking stones permasoaked so they would be ready to go whenever I wanted. The sigma power stones feel relatively hard (even once soaked) and don't tend to dish easily. King/suehiro classic stones are a lot softer, smoother/creamier and are reasonably cheap. They aren't exotic stones but they get the job done fast enough so long as you maintain flatness regularly.
> 
> The chosera stones are good stones but not worth what you pay for. They weren't cheap even before they rebranded and increased their prices when i had them several years ago. If you are set on getting them though I would go for the 800 and the 3000. After that you might be inclined to get an 8k finisher (either the super stone 5k or snow white 8k work well after the chosera 3k and are also splash n go, although the ss responds to a brief soak very well. It also polishes higher than its grit would have you believe) and probably a coarse stone such as the king deluxe 300 (which is a nice and hard splash and go which doesn't dish easily- making it excellent for chip repair and minor thinning jobs).
> 
> There is no reason to 'upgrade' from these stones but it is very easy to fall into a stone hole along with several knives once you start experimenting with how different knives respond to each stone.



What would you prefer over the Choseras then? It's nice to hear a counter argument for something so popular.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 19, 2018)

galvaude said:


> Im done with splash and go stones. I much prefer the feel of soakers, most of them are cheaper and most of the time are easier when an even finish is important.
> 
> Most people rave about the choseras/pro having nice feedback, I guess they never tried a kings, Rika 5000 and most suehiro or a bester 1000...
> 
> I permasoak them at home with no probleme, usually changing water every 1-2 week.



I'm still quite a novice and I don't have a lot of time on my hand. So with the mass amount of information in this forum, chosera stuck out to me. 

So you prefer all of those over the chosera for its feedback?


----------



## galvaude (Jun 19, 2018)

donhoang14 said:


> I'm still quite a novice and I don't have a lot of time on my hand. So with the mass amount of information in this forum, chosera stuck out to me.
> 
> So you prefer all of those over the chosera for its feedback?




Take this with a huge grain of salt as this is only MY opinion but yes I much prefer the feels of the stones mentionned earlier than choseras. Once you got through the first mm of soaking stones and permasoak them, they start having a very creamy yet aggressive feel.

Again IMO Naniwa Pro and Choseras are way too expensive, I'm in Canada and a 1k is about $115 with shipping and taxes and the 3000 is around $170. Quite a lot of money for sharpening. I still have the 1k, will probably sell it soon.


----------



## donhoang14 (Jun 20, 2018)

galvaude said:


> Take this with a huge grain of salt as this is only MY opinion but yes I much prefer the feels of the stones mentionned earlier than choseras. Once you got through the first mm of soaking stones and permasoak them, they start having a very creamy yet aggressive feel.
> 
> Again IMO Naniwa Pro and Choseras are way too expensive, I'm in Canada and a 1k is about $115 with shipping and taxes and the 3000 is around $170. Quite a lot of money for sharpening. I still have the 1k, will probably sell it soon.



Ah ok that's some price to pay for them. I'm in Amsterdam and I think they're not overly expensive here


----------



## Consequence (Jun 28, 2018)

I agree with what Dave said
Ive got some killer Gesshin 320 splash and go stones for sale. Check my post out! Im selling them cheaper than retail to clear excess that i had.


----------

