Has anyone removed the base from a Chosera or similar?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

My 5000 Chosera finally arrived after over a month of waiting, and I picked it up from the PO on the way out of town. I got back and just opened it- UGH!!! They sent the one with the plastic base on it. I hate the plastic base. The ad clearly said WITHOUT base! I could live with it, but it doesn't fit in my storage drawer, and- well I just don't like it. Has anyone tried removing it? I thought I might saw it off and then flatten the stone to remove any glue. I don't even care if that side remains glue saturated and can't be used. It also screws up my jig I was making with a sliding bar that would hold five stones all in a row so I can quickly go from grit to grit.

I just tried heating just the base with hot water, but was afraid to damage the stone so I didn't try very hard. I think I am going to take it to the shop and use a table saw set to leave a fraction of a mm and then sand the remaining off.

Why not send it back? It would cost a lot and take months to get another one. I would rather just make do with this one.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Update: I got it off. I turned it upside-down and filled the base with hot water, then used a butter knife to pry it off. More hot water, more prying- it is off. By the way, they just glop glue on and stick it down. The glue is very rubbery. I was expecting evenly spread epoxy. This looks like hot-melt in a big glob.

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[Don Kingston]

Maybe you can resell the base on ebay as a rare base with no stone hahaha just kidding. Thought of that after reading the next post about the saw

[Malcolm Schweizer]

That's funny! Let's see...

RARE AND COLLECTABLE Chosera stone base. (Stone not included) Naniwa has stopped making the Chosera stones, thus making this little gem already rare, but this one was actually removed from the stone, showing the original glue, which is included in the sale price. Even if you were to find a Chosera stone today, you would be hard-pressed to find a base without the stone attached. In fact, Chosera started offering the stones without bases some time ago, thus making the bases even more rare and collectable.

Starting bid: $150 Buy it now: $300

[Malcolm Schweizer]

By the way, on a serious note, for those wondering- the glue did very easily come off the stone with flattening. One small thing to note is they don't chamfer the edge on the bottom of the stone for obvious reasons, but a few strokes on the DMT fixed that. Also I did have to flatten it a bit more than normal for a new stone, but you'd still have to measure the amount of material I removed in microns or at least in thousandths of inches. It wasn't much, but I had to do a lot to flatten it on the glued side. That said, I'm pretty sure what happened is that in trying to remove the glue with the DMT flattening plate, the glue was causing the stone to be elevated on one end where a little glop of glue was being stubborn, so I may have been abrading at a very slight angle- again speaking in minute terms here. The stone is fine now- no glue spots or remnants of glue. I would take a picture but it would just be a picture of a 5000 Chosera without a base attached. Nothing to see here. :-)

[Brian Holcombe]

did it spend that month in customs? I have ordered quite a few things from japan over the past year and it'll either be here in 3 days or take forever.....

[Malcolm Schweizer]

No, it came regular mail, and for me that means it comes by boat. The boat leaves from Florida and takes a week to get here, and then it takes a while for (a) customs to inspect the container and (b) the post office to decide to unload it. Also they wait until they get enough to fill a container before they put it on the boat, and the boat only sails once a week. Usually once I see a package is in Jacksonville, FL, I can expect another 2 to 3 weeks before I get that glorious yellow slip in my mailbox that says I have a package to pick up.

[Don Kingston]

This is classic. Had me rolling.

That's funny! Let's see...

RARE AND COLLECTABLE Chosera stone base. (Stone not included) Naniwa has stopped making the Chosera stones, thus making this little gem already rare, but this one was actually removed from the stone, showing the original glue, which is included in the sale price. Even if you were to find a Chosera stone today, you would be hard-pressed to find a base without the stone attached. In fact, Chosera started offering the stones without bases some time ago, thus making the bases even more rare and collectable.

Starting bid: $150 Buy it now: $300

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Update: I got it off. I turned it upside-down and filled the base with hot water, then used a butter knife to pry it off. More hot water, more prying- it is off. By the way, they just glop glue on and stick it down. The glue is very rubbery. I was expecting evenly spread epoxy. This looks like hot-melt in a big glob.

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Well, that explains why my 1000 SuperStone is so flexy between the base and the stone.

Good to know these can be removed; I just ordered a 3k Cho, and now I'm wondering if I'll be in the same boat. From your description, I hazard to guess it might be the same place…

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I was quite surprised at the way it is glued. Water would get under there and stay, and funk could even grow there. Also this does nothing for the stone as far as keeping it flat. I don't know why they don't just give you a separate base.

If you do what I did, the water needs to be boiled on the stove and poured in the base hot. It takes a few times for the heat to penetrate. Keep pouring the water out and more scalding hot water in- like every minute. Then pull it with your hands until you can get a knife in. Once the knife is in you're almost home. Note that on mine when the glue separated at one point it made a pop, and I was sure I had just turned my stone into two 5k naguras! No damage. I just used the stone to sharpen two knives. Love this stone; very darned close to the finish I get from a Shapton glass 8k.

I got got mine on Amazon. The photo showed a base, but it clearly said "no base."

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[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Ah, different seller but very similar listing from what I went with. I'm hoping the 3k fits well between my 8k Snow White and 1k sigma when I need something between.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I'd be tempted to use your hot water method, but first slicing the "lip" off the stone side of the plastic base, to assist in getting a pry under there. Guess I'll see if mine comes with or without base when it arrives.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Ah, different seller but very similar listing from what I went with. I'm hoping the 3k fits well between my 8k Snow White and 1k sigma when I need something between.

I have been using the 1k and 3k Chosera followed by an 8k Shapton. You will be fine. I am a believer that slow grit progression takes less time than jumping grit more than 3kper step. I am not saying you can't or even that you shouldn't jump large steps- just saying it is faster if you have the stones. Now I have a 400, 1k, 3k, and 5k Chosera and 8k and 15k Shapton. The 15 is mainly for straight razors. Still a 1k, 3k, 8k setup is fine, especially with these.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Yep, my 3K arrived today, and sure enough, it's got a base. Guess I'll have a go at your method, Malcom!

[Matthew N. Masail]

Malcom, Thank you for posting this! It prompted me to remove the basses from my 800 and 3000, it took some "cutting" with a thin paint spatula after the boiling water, the glue they use is strong! but all in all it worked really well. I reglued them to playwood basses with super7, I hated the plastic basses but like a base on my stones.