I jumped in all the way and got them all. My initial thought was 800/1000 and 2k/3k were enough. Based on a lot of feedback I decided to get the 400/600 to back that course to get the diamond scratches out. After that I decided might as well get the 5k/10k too. At least those should save some stropping time. Probably still a good decision, may not use 10k on every knife but probably will use 5k all the time.

I will be very interested to hear what you think...

It took me about 8 to 10 months to make myself spring for the whole set. I started with the 400/600 and the 800/1000. I had nothing beyond the 1000 diamonds. I think that you will be very impressed with the edge after the 1000 Chosera. I often leave it at that ...with a bit of stropping. A nice edge.
A bit of tooth, but with a decent amount of reflectivity.

Phil

Geocyclist wrote:


WOW! That is way cool.

I will also be very interested in your experiences with them. I sure hope you will share what you learn. I really wanted to get some Chosera's but could not pop for the full set since I am sooooooo heavily invested in my PP2 + several extra strops, and two extra sets of ceramics and the 50/80 stones. I was playing with the idea of getting just a set of 5k/10k Chosera's to finish off my mirrored blades after the ceramics. So it will be very interesting to me to hear if you think you actually need to go through the whole Chosera progression or just use the 5k/ 10k after the ceramics to get a nice mirror. Anyway, enjoy and know that I am at least a little jealous.

PhilipPasteur wrote:


I am interested to see the difference between a "bit of tooth" vs. very fine. I will have to post my findings. Before I pulled the trigger on these I read some as well about plain bench choseras. They have very good reputation among hand sharpeners as well.

[quote="Geocyclist" post=6893]PhilipPasteur wrote:


plain bench chasers".

What is that? Not ...hopefully not to show too vividly my ignorance... but I have not seen that term...

Bench strop perhaps?

Phil

Sorry, spell checker got me. I meant plain bench choseras. Just plain chosera stones for hand sharpening.

Chasers would also be interesting.

OK...OK.
I said something in another thread.. I am working on it.
I spent a buch of time over the weekend re-working the B75P blade.
I went back to the 600 dimaonds, then 800/1000 then the 1200/1600 ceramics,
then the micro-fine fine and course. I took photos at something like 200X.
I then went "back" to the 1000 Choseras, then 2K, then 3K, then 5K, 10K, then the 12K Naniwa Superstone.

Vey interesting results. I took about 100 pics trying to tease out details. I hope that what I got will be intersting to anyone looking at waterstones.

While doing this I start to really, really appreciate what Clay does. This stuff takes a whole bunch of time.

Now that I have the photos, I have to go back and label them properly, then upload them, then compose a message where they are in the right order and I can comment on them..
I will do it though .
Just a teaser, here is a photo after I went through the 600 to 1000 grit diamonds and the four levels of ceramics. The bevel was pretty reflective.. can read print reflected in it, just not real clearly. It is a great edge that cuts like crazy... just not a real hyper reflective mirror edge..

More to come !

Phil

One more while I am awake... this is after going "back" to the 1K choseras.
You will see the scratches that show that I tried Clay's suggestion about attacking the scratches from different angles. I did about 75 edge trailing stokes, then 75 edge leading strokes, then about 30 edge trailing strokes... you can see the scratches...

Notice the scratches are not all that different than the 0.6 micron ceramic scratches. On a macro level, at this point the edge was noticeably more reflective...
Later I will catergorize and rename all of the photos and uploade them to photobucket so I can just link them...

Phil

BTW, we are talking about maybe 200 to 250 X here. I have a set of three extension tubes between the body and the lense... a 24 to 85 mm macro lense... at max zoom, then a 10X magnifier on the front. I looked at formulas, ran them and came out around 250X... not an exact science for me.. too many variables. If anything, at this magnification it gives a better perspective on what you see. There is more blade in view, and ..after all, we can't see at 500 or 2500X. When you pick up your knife and look at the edge, well you see what your eyes show. You cut ..what you cut..and know how that works..


More to come...

Very nice pictures, Phil!

Interesting, particularly in the last photograph, is the line about half-way the edge. It is as if the edge has been sharpened at two slightly different angles. I noticed that in some of my photographs, too. But I never noticed it until people here started talking about the slight play in the joints of the “old” arm rods. Are you using these? Or did you do this on purpose to create a multi-beveled edge?

A nice thing of the ball joints is that this play has disappeared. Not that it matters a bit in practice. I guess Clay just did this for people who like to stare at edges under their microscopes . (And, yes, I’d be the first to agree that’s a weird deviation . )

Those look great Phil, I can't wait to see more!