upgrading stones

Ok. Time for another round of spend my windfalls for me KKF.

I am a professional cook. I work pretty often. I prefer to sharpen my knives at work rather than at home.

Currently I have some strops a dressing plate and a king 1200 and king 4000 (base, all they had in stock at my local woodworking place at the time).

I don't mind the king 1200 it's a decent stone for a basic steel like aus 8 or X50CrMo14. It is a good general use stone that will stop at for my fkm petty, wustie boning knife and my yoshihiro 1141 suji. problem with this stone is that any kind of better steel, vg-10, 440, aus10, ginsanko or semi stainless the stone glazes almost immediately and requires a boatload of water to cut at all.

the king 4000 kind of blows. the base makes it pretty unsteady and it is the smallest size stone king offers. it glazes on any steel. takes forever to work up swarf and I just find the edge it generates isn't tremendously impressive. nice reflective finish though.

thing is as I upgrade my knives I find these stones cut slower and slower and even though I get better at sharpening I also make bigger mistakes I feel due to fatigue. So I'm looking for a quick cutter that won't glaze up too fast (or at all... does this exist?).

for roughly the same amount CAD I can get either:

beston 500
bester 1200
rika 5000

OR

chosera 400
naniwa pro 1000
chosera 5000


which do you think I would be happier with given my comments above? the discrepancy in price is maybe 30 dollars with the naniwa obviously being the more expensive option but it'll be shipped domestic ... The first option is obviously from the vendor nobody likes but despite their reputation I think these are supposed to be pretty good stones the rika especially. Then again naniwa has a wonderful reputation...

Here's 2 cents worth.

The Bestor 500 does not work for me. I can't find the sweet spot between not enough water and scratching hell out of everything and too much water and just slip sliding all day. Others like the stone so I figure the sweet spot is elusive but not impossible. (I got mine from Togo so it might be all his fault...) And it dished like a bastard. Anyway I gave mine away and would not buy another. YMMV

On the low grit end of the spectrum I can't imagine being without a JNS 300. Easily the best stone of it's type I've used. Put it together with the JNS syn Aoto or JNS 800 and you'll get the free shipping. The Gesshin 400 is a close 2nd but I understand that shipping across the border may be prohibitive. But you could do a lot worse than getting the G400 and a G2K.

The Bestor 1200 and Suhiro Rika work well for me and work well together. Especially with stainless where they leave a nice mirror polish. For me. I currently use some of the Gesshin stones for most everything but keep those around.

Can't speak to the Chosera/Naniwa stones - for unknown reasons they've not appealed to me and I've never tried them. If they're splash and go they may be best alternative for a work application.

I'm not really that interested in splash n go I live at work anyway. Hmm. Thanks for the comments about the bester 1200 and the rika. Do either of those stones dish badly? I know the Gesshin are the current favourite but they are way, way out of my price range not taking into account shipping. The JNS looks interesting, I have never done business with maksim but i know he is highly recommended. Could be an excuse to grab an Itinomonn knife my poor wallet

chosera 400 to set the bevel
ikarashi from JNS <---best stone i have come across for stainless steel. it leaves a 2k edge, that's all you need for stainless, especially in a pro setting. and mac black ceramic rod will keep it going which is also 2k grit. look for it used on non knife for sale section