Will a Chosera 800 and a Rika 5000 Play Together Nicely?

[Avincent52]

I'm a newbie to the Forum and also a newbie to sharpening. I've made enough progress in recent months with a King 1000/6000 combo stone that I know I'll stick with it.
So I'm looking for a pair of higher quality stones: a medium grit and a polishing stone.
From lurking here and elsewhere, I'm intrigued by the Naniwa Pro/Chosera 800 and the Suehiro Rika 5000.

I'm expecting that I'll be doing mostly reasonably sharp knives and I'm not worried about thinning for the moment, so I'm putting the question of a coarse stone aside for the moment.
Knife wise, I have a few recently purchased Japanese knives (Katon guyto/bunka in Aogami Super, Kamo jinari in Aoagami #2, and Kurosaki sujihiki in SG2) as well as some Shuns (santoku, nakiri) that will stay in rotation for the rest of the family, and a Wustoff chef's knife that's relegated to heavy work.
On balance, most of the knifes are quite sharp now and I'm doing my best to keep them that way. (And until I level up my skills a little more, I'm not averse to popping a couple of the nice knives in a box and mailing them to a pro sharpener.)
I'm a home cook so I'm interested in how these knives will perform chopping vegetables and slicing meat (but not sushi) No interest in straight razors or woodworking tools.

Indiviidually the Chosera 800 and the Rika seem to be very well liked.
But I also gather that the Chosera 800 performs more like a finer stone than its grit rating would lead you to believe. And the Rika is a bit more like a coarse stone. Will they work together nicely in a two-stone tandem? Or is there something I'm missing?

I'm generally fine with the price points and the semi-splash-and-go nature of each stone.
And obviously, if these aren't an ideal pairing, please suggest alternatives to one or both.

Thanks in advance.
Allen

 

[Ruso]

I'm a newbie to the Forum and also a newbie to sharpening. I've made enough progress in recent months with a King 1000/6000 combo stone that I know I'll stick with it.
So I'm looking for a pair of higher quality stones: a medium grit and a polishing stone.
From lurking here and elsewhere, I'm intrigued by the Naniwa Pro/Chosera 800 and the Suehiro Rika 5000.

I'm expecting that I'll be doing mostly reasonably sharp knives and I'm not worried about thinning for the moment, so I'm putting the question of a coarse stone aside for the moment.
Knife wise, I have a few recently purchased Japanese knives (Katon guyto/bunka in Aogami Super, Kamo jinari in Aoagami #2, and Kurosaki sujihiki in SG2) as well as some Shuns (santoku, nakiri) that will stay in rotation for the rest of the family, and a Wustoff chef's knife that's relegated to heavy work.
On balance, most of the knifes are quite sharp now and I'm doing my best to keep them that way. (And until I level up my skills a little more, I'm not averse to popping a couple of the nice knives in a box and mailing them to a pro sharpener.)
I'm a home cook so I'm interested in how these knives will perform chopping vegetables and slicing meat (but not sushi) No interest in straight razors or woodworking tools.

Indiviidually the Chosera 800 and the Rika seem to be very well liked.
But I also gather that the Chosera 800 performs more like a finer stone than its grit rating would lead you to believe. And the Rika is a bit more like a coarse stone. Will they work together nicely in a two-stone tandem? Or is there something I'm missing?

I'm generally fine with the price points and the semi-splash-and-go nature of each stone.
And obviously, if these aren't an ideal pairing, please suggest alternatives to one or both.

Thanks in advance.
Allen

Chosera/Pro 800 followed by Rika will be fine. You might want to buy another stone in ~300-500 range. Setting bevels or doing minor fixes on Chosera 800 is quite frustrating. Think about Chosera 800 as 1200+ type of stone.
Good stone to add will be Chosera/Pro 400 which is about 600grit and has wonderful feedback.

In short, Rika and Chosera 800 are both great stones and will work good together. Keep in mind that Rika is a soaker and Chosera/Pro are SnG.

 

[cotedupy]

Yep as Ruso said above; both good stones, and will work nicely together. And as you've noted; like a lot of Naniwas the NP 800 plays a little higher than its grit rating, and the Rika a little lower.

Just personal preference but I'd be tempted to go King 800 and Ouka, you'd get a bit more bite on the edges, and those two would leave a nicer polish / bevel finish (if that's your bag). Both of them are soakers though, and the King is a fair bit more dishy than the Naniwa... so swings and roundabouts!

 

[Nemo]

Yep as Ruso said above; both good stones, and will work nicely together. And as you've noted; like a lot of Naniwas the NP 800 plays a little higher than its grit rating, and the Rika a little lower.

Just personal preference but I'd be tempted to go King 800 and Ouka, you'd get a bit more bite on the edges, and those two would leave a nicer polish / bevel finish (if that's your bag). Both of them are soakers though, and the King is a fair bit more dishy than the Naniwa... so swings and roundabouts!

How is King 800 on stainless? I have not used it but have read reports of it loading up with stainless. Does this match your experience with it?

 

[Nemo]

I'd get a 500ish stone for your Wustoffs. As in, don't sharpen these with a fine stone.


If you want the deep dive on why,

1) The steel is made up of moderately hard carbides in a fairly soft steel matrix. If an abrasive particle is fine enough to get in between the carbides, it will preferentially abrade the soft steel matrix, leaving the carbides standing proud (and not very sharp).

2) The steel is fairly coarse grained and won't hold a high polish.


I sharpen soft Western Stainless on Chosera 400, then deburr on 1k (sometimes I use a Belgian Blue). Others will probably recommend Shaptons.

 

[gentiscid]

Get a Chosera 3k and you are all set with these 3 stones.

 

[cotedupy]

How is King 800 on stainless? I have not used it but have read reports of it loading up with stainless. Does this match your experience with it?

Not at all tbh, those King mid grits are so muddy that I can't imagine one ever loading.

I use King 800s when teaching sharpening, and as you can imagine people often bring stainless knives. I've never seen anyone have a problem.

 

[Avincent52]

I'd get a 500ish stone for your Wustoffs. As in, don't sharpen these with a fine stone.


If you want the deep dive on why,

1) The steel is made up of moderately hard carbides in a fairly soft steel matrix. If an abrasive particle is fine enough to get in between the carbides, it will preferentially abrade the soft steel matrix, leaving the carbides standing proud (and not very sharp).

2) The steel is fairly coarse grained and won't hold a high polish.


I sharpen soft Western Stainless on Chosera 400, then deburr on 1k (sometimes I use a Belgian Blue). Others will probably recommend Shaptons.

Point taken. There's exactly one Wustoff chef's knife that was my good knife years and years ago. It's now behind the Japanese knives and the Shuns relegated to heavy duty tasks like butternut squash and splitting lobsters. So it's one knife and it's kind of optional that it's sharp. Meaning a coarse stone is likely to cost almost as much as the knife is worth, though eventually I'll probably get one.

 

[Avincent52]

Thanks so much for all the feedback.
I think I'll get the Rika now and the Naniwa 800 soon.

 

[Avincent52]

A quick update.
I bought the RIka on Amazon for like $36.
It's a big step up from the King 6000, partly because the stone is physically larger, and there's a little more "feedback" (?) whereas the King feels a little like I'm trying to sharpen on a bathroom tile.
Did a quick touchup on an already sharp(ish) Shun and was very pleased with the results.
I also stropped my Yoshimi Kato just a bit and better knifes seem like they're more fun to work on.
Thanks again and I think I'll be getting the Naniwa 800 sooner too, mostly because of the size.

 

[Heckel7302]

A quick update.
I bought the RIka on Amazon for like $36.
It's a big step up from the King 6000, partly because the stone is physically larger, and there's a little more "feedback" (?) whereas the King feels a little like I'm trying to sharpen on a bathroom tile.
Did a quick touchup on an already sharp(ish) Shun and was very pleased with the results.
I also stropped my Yoshimi Kato just a bit and better knifes seem like they're more fun to work on.
Thanks again and I think I'll be getting the Naniwa 800 sooner too, mostly because of the size.

King 6000 is just not a great stone. Does ok for polishing, but for edges I really don’t like it. It works better as a splash and go rather than soaked, but still not very good.

 

[Avincent52]

Agreed.
I bought the King 1k/6k combo stone to see if I could learn to sharpen and if I'd like it enough to stick with it. (I do.)
The 1k side seems fine, but the feel of the 6k wasn't great, and getting the Rika confirms that.
I think I will get Naniwa Pro 800 soon since I expect it will be an upgrade over the King.

Thanks again

 

[Matt Jacobs]

that 800/5k was my main set up for a long time and worked very together. My only complaint was that the Rikka is a soaker so I ended up not using it very often. I added a shapton pro 2k as my main stone. I am not a huge fan of soakers for my home sharpening set up as its in the kitchen and I cant leave stones out soaking so it rarely gets used. If I am doing 3 or more knives I will take the time to pull it out otherwise I stop at 2k.

 

[mike59]

I started with a Cerax 1000 and Rika 5000 and love both of them. I wanted to go SNG so I got the Naniwa Pro (Chosera) 800 and 3000 and also love both of those. If you don't mind soaking you might consider the Cerax 1000 vs. the Naniwa Pro 800. All of the stones you're considering are great - just thought I'd toss the Cerax 1000 out there for consideration.