Whenever anyone tells me a particular sharpening stone is at the head of its class in performance, I naturally want to prove that to my own satisfaction. Over the last year or so, the Naniwa’s Chosera line of waterstones seems to have replaced the Shapton hones as the first choice of uncompromising knife sharpeners on the various “foodie” websites. While I have used some of “Golden Lobster’s” (Naniwa’s trademark) earlier products, the Chosera stones were new to me. With a little research, I discovered the line was created to offer an alternative to the slowly disappearing natural stones that have been quarried for centuries in Japan. While natural Japanese stones have their following, if you actually want to own the highest quality hones, it is almost mandatory that you speak Japanese and be willing to frequent the shops of a handful of specialists in that country. You also better have deep pockets, as these stones are priced like Tiffany diamonds! If the Chosera line could give me that level of performance without the risks and costs, I was certainly interested.

Choosing Choseras
A quick trip to Chef Knives To Go’s website and I had Chosera 1,000- and 3,000-grit hones on the way to my doorstep. The first thing I found interesting about the stones was that they both came with a “nagura” stone for helping to work up a “mud” slurry on the surface of the sharpeners.