# Advice for a coarse stone



## Mrukk (Nov 17, 2015)

Hello everyone

Having a #1200 bester and a rika #5000 which were advised to me in this site, and been practicing whenever possible for almost a year I´m getting more confident with my sharpening although still far from some of the excellent sharpening I see here, I got curious to try a coarser stone on a few very dull and chipped knifes i have here. I find that it takes quite a while to sharpen a dull blade with the 1200 Bester ( i only have stainless steel knives at the moment, maybe will try a carbon steel knife in the near future). 

I would like to order from toolsfromjapan.com, they have the best prices, if you don't mind I would like your opinion on a coarser stone that sells on that site and that would go well with my other two stones.

Best Regards


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## chinacats (Nov 17, 2015)

Hi,

I use the Cerax 320 from Stu--TFJ. I like the way it feels and cuts. I would suggest purchasing the double thickness as the stone tends to dish a bit. Not sure if you have a diamond plate for flattening but believe he used to sell Atoma plates at a pretty fair price. I like purchasing from him, but be warned that he may take a bit to ship--make sure and read the page that he mentions before placing your order.

Cheers


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## Mrukk (Nov 17, 2015)

Thank you for your quick answer.

I use sandpaper to flatten the stones, it´s working well so far.

I've bought the rika from Stu, so i know it takes quite a while, no problem for me.

So I guess i should go for a 300/400 grit stone, there is plenty of choice, like the naniwa superstone 400, shapton pro 320, Naniwa chosera 400, Sigma power 400 and the King Deluxe 300.

Regarding the Cerax 320, i researched a little and it seems it dishes out very fast, which is a bit annoying for me, although the price is very attractive.

Have you tried the King Deluxe 300? it has a good price also, and it seems to be a harder stone.


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## chinacats (Nov 17, 2015)

No, I've not tried the King...I think the thing that I like most about the Cerax is that while it dishes fast, it provides somewhat of a better feel to me than some of the harder coarse stones...I have a pink brick for when I need some extra oomph, but usually just go with the Cerax. I believe that you will find most coarse stones to dish fairly quickly so that is somewhat of a non-issue from my perspective and the double thickness more than makes up for any dishing, especially considering the price. Seems that a lot of people enjoy their Choseras so maybe someone will chime in who has tried some of the other stones on your list. As an aside, I really like Jon's 400 (JKI) but that is not exactly a budget stone.

Cheers


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## ThEoRy (Nov 17, 2015)

What exactly is your budget for just the one stone? I too will recommend the Gesshin 400 for what it's worth.


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## psfred (Nov 17, 2015)

I bought a King Deluxe 300 from Stu a while back -- I posted a review, I think, so a search might be in order.

Very nice stone, cuts pretty fast and dishes VERY slowly if you use light pressure. Great for establishing new bevels and grinding out small chips, etc. 

I have also used a King 220 green silicon carbide stone and a Naniwa 220 SuperStone, and both of them dished so fast for me I couldn't use them for woodworking tools, which was my main objective at the time.

I think you will like it very much.

Peter


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## Benuser (Nov 18, 2015)

You should seriously consider the Naniwa Professional 400, the former Chosera. The new one dishes even less than the former one, and the absence of a base and the reduced height allow an even drying.


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## Mrukk (Nov 18, 2015)

I guess i'll go either for the king 300 or the Cerax 320, I still have to decide, they're more in my price range and they will do the job just fine.


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## Marcelo Amaral (Nov 18, 2015)

+1 for the King 300. Like psfred said, dishes slow and cuts reasonably fast.


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## daveb (Nov 18, 2015)

JNS 300 is worth s look in any coarse stone discussion. It's splas and go - and more importantly dry and go. I like that in a stone I don't use often. And the little extra coin? It only hurts for a little while...


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## Chicagohawkie (Nov 18, 2015)

Shapton pro 220 and 320 are great stones at very attractive price points


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## Mrukk (Nov 19, 2015)

It seems that the King 300 is more suited for carbon knifes, at least from the description, which is bad for me.

The Shapton 320 is an option too, although more expensive, will it be much better than the Cerax 320?

The JNS 300 is way too expensive for me.


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## ecchef (Nov 19, 2015)

I recently went Naniwa Super 220 - Beston - Bester - Shap Pro 5k on white steel with really nice results. The Naniwa, although it dishes quickly, gives good feedback.


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## Miley (Nov 22, 2015)

I really like the shapton pro 320, I recently got one on amazon for under forty bux shipped from shapton in japan.


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## Matus (Nov 22, 2015)

I have Gesshin 400 and JNS 300 - both are great. The Gesshin leaves smoother finish, it is also more muddy and dishes faster, the JNS dishes less, but the finish is little more coarse. So it also depends on what you plan to do with the stone. For thinning wide bevels I would probably take the Gesshin as it will not be as much work to take out the scratches with finer stones, for less critical work I would go with JNS as it dishes less.


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## Mrukk (Nov 22, 2015)

Thank you for all your comments.

I decided to go for the Cerax 320, it was at a great price from japan, and I´m sure it will be enough for what I want, and as a coarse stone I wont be using it very often, so there's no problem if it dishes more than others.
My wife doesn't see it with good eyes, spending so much money on some stones :biggrin: Although she is enjoys her small knives to be always sharp.

Now the next step is to get a budget carbon steel traditional style Japanese knife to see the differences in sharpening and using in the kitchen, the problem is to find one nice at around 50.

Best Regards


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## Matus (Nov 22, 2015)

Let us know how you will like the Cerax. And for the knife - try the Exchange forum - a short "WTB" thread may be all that it takes to find what you are looking for


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## Mrukk (Nov 22, 2015)

I still can't post there, and as I am from Portugal, it makes it even harder for someone to sell me a knife, i guess there are very few people from Europe in this forum.

You've show me a while a go the site tosa-hocho.de that sells knives for around 40, but i am not sure, i can´t find much feed back from those knives, I'm afraid they´re very low quality and end up wasting my 40.They also sell Zakuri for around 80, i´m sure those will be good, but 80 is too much for me.


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## Benuser (Nov 22, 2015)

Check our German counterparts for both, and use the Google search site function.
Search:
site:messerforum.net object1 AND object2


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