Hi guys...
As you know some days ago I got a box from CKTG with some stuff. Among the goodies there was a stone that I relly wanted to give a try because almost everybody considers it a good piece.
A few hours ago I used it for the first time and it was almost shocking to see how different it works compared to my humble "Oishi" 1000.
I'm used to smaller stones, so, this one gave me the impression of being massive. As soon as I took it out of the box and the celophan, I sunk it in water with the Takenoko 6000 and inmediately I forced a patina with mustard on the Tojiro Nakiri and I made a horrible mess with it, if the nature of this knife is not exactly what you can call "pretty" now it looks just plain awfull, and now I can tell you that I got a 50 bucks lesson on how not to make a patina
aned believe me... The lesson is learned.
*This is the knife that I bought just for getting some experience with carbon steel, and it's something like a guinea pig knife... More on that later.
When the stones had like 20 minutes under water and the Nakiri all messed up, I went to the home depot to find the almost mythical "drywall" ( Seems like here nobody uses it... But I'm sure that I saw my handyman with a pice of it long time ago) Once I got into the store, I started asking for it, and no one knew what I was talking about, I got looks from the plain WTF is this guy talking about to some others that looked at me as if I were a retarded... I talked to 5 guys and the last one listened my whole explanation, that I tried to make as clear as possible, I explained him for several minutes on what the misterious item was and how it looked like, what was used for and I told him that 3M along with some other famous brands were the manufacturers of such fine piece.
Once that I ended my speech, he told me... I know what you're looking for... It's "Drywall" (HE SAID IT IN ENGLISH!!!...He was my man, he understanded me and knew what I was talking about, by the way that he pronounced it I inmediately knew that this guy had worked in the U.S. Maybe he was a handyman, a carpet installer or something like that because he knew what a drywall was and what is it used for) I heard a celestial chorus in the back of my head, the dull colored afternoon became brilliant with live colors, I felt that the long quest had reached to an end, the odissey was over... But it was too good to be truth... "Sorry amigo, we don't have drywall here", but there's something that may help you, and he took me to the sand paper zone, sandpaper, sponges for sanding, and hundreds of different products, but not a drywall... Long story short, I'll be flattening my stones for the rest of my life with sandpaper, or until my next trip to the U.S. wich may take a few more months.
But back to the BESTER.
Seems like an hour and a half of soaking was not enough, that stone absorbs water like an sponge, I took it out of the bucket and by the time that I fixed it on the stone holder it was dry already.
I splashed it and started working it with a knife, and boy... This really removes steel. Since it's a 1200 and not a 1000 like my old stone, I tought that it was going to be smoother on the blade, but not, this stone really has a bite.
But as soon as I had passed the knife 5 or 6 times, the slurry was a thick mud. I had to add water very often to keep it working. Once that I made the first passes, I looked for the burr, and by the time that I was going to work the other side, it was again almost dry.
But besides that, I liked it very much, is a very wide stone compared to my other oishi and that makes sharpening a breeze. I think that it's also a "fast" stone (remember that my experience is a 1000 Minosharp, and an oishi 1000, this is my first "serious" stone, so, don't take my words as if carved on stone) and the knives were ready for the next stone much faster, but also I have to give some credits, before I used to count the passes from 10 each side to 9,8 and so on, and now I use BDL "Burr Method" and my life is a bit easier 
.
After that I polished with the Takenoko 6000 and that was also a very nice experience, the Mac got sharper than ever, and the Tojiro Nakiri got "scary sharp". I'll let you know more on the Takenoko later.
That's it guys, any advice that you may have on the bester 1200 will be very appreciated, I don't know if I did something wrong, if I have to soak that stone overnight or if I just have to get used to splash very often while sharpening.
Best regards!
P.S. On a more positive note on the Tojiro Nakiri. Since I was in the home depot, I got a super fine sponge/sandpaper for wood and sanded the handle of the knife because it comes without any kind of nice finish on the wood. Then I gave it a coat of "Tru oil" (I used that oil for the walnut stock of one of my rifles) and so far it looks much better, I think that in a couple of hours more, I'll give it a second coat. I'll keep you posted on that. I think that after the horrible patina that I gave to the knife, now it deserves some pampering on the wood.
(My mac). I told him that I wasn't promising anything, but I took away my old oishi (Now it belongs to my staff) knowing that it was going to be too challenging for such an small stone.
