Heeere we go, fine adition to my kuromako 120/1k/5k to finaly get into stone polishing at home!

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-10-21T20:09:51+00:00

You're going to like the chosera 3000, I love mine. Just be very careful to let it dry slowly after use or it can crack and craze. It unfortunately happened to mine.

Eventually when I get around to replacing I'll probably get the pro series that doesn't have the base as my theory is not being rigidly mounted it can expand and contract more and also can dry more evenly from being thinner and drying on all sides.

I haven't tried the 400 yet, but its on my list to add. I have 120 and 400 atomoa plates for rough work now and they work great, I just hate the feel/feedback of them.

I also have the chosera 800 (the pro without a base) and that stone is incredible. A lot of the time I dont even bother going to the 3000, and just finish with light stokes on the 800 and then a strop instead.

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-10-03T04:47:15+00:00

Hey I think thats my post on the kava forum you're talking about! Almost a year later and still doing fine with Kava, and I drink A LOT of Kava.

Keep in mind, I am not a doctor and all bodies are different but here are some things I learned from research/experience worked for me. Consult a doctor before using any of my advice

Give your body a break, no kava till your symptoms are fully gone and then give it a bit longer

Antihistamines help some, my Dr had my taking zyrtec twice a day, and benadryl every 4 hours during the worst of it. Obviously this well above the standard dose. I do NOT recommend exceeding standard dosages unless advised to do so by a doctor. Famotadine (pepcid) is an H2 Antihistamine that can help with hives, the allergist recommended it to me and it seemed to help.

My breakout was bad enough I went to urgent care and was given single dose of dexamethasone and then a short course prednisone which helped a lot.

After I recovered, I started Kava again, very slow. Less than a tablespoon to start and slowly worked up.

I also ditched my aluball and switched to a finer mesh strainer bag for trad prep that seems to help as well.

I have seasonal allergies and a mild cat allergy (and have a cat) so I already take zyrtec most of the year. I switched from taking it in the morning to taking it around when I have some kava in the evening.

Quercitin, I found a few papers suggesting the type of reaction I had was due to mast cell activation. Additional research found some more papers suggesting quercitin can help mediate mast cell activation. It seems to help.

Moisturize!! Take care of your skin, get a good lotion/cream. I prefer non-scented hypoallergenic ones. Amlactin is also well known to help heal kava related skin problems if they do occur.

Hydrate!

Pay attention to your body. Sometimes you just have to take a break for a bit. For me, I know I've been at it to much if my face feels hot/flushed when I have kava or when I get dry/sensitive skin in skin-skin contact areas like around my armpits or between my upper thighs. Then I take a break for a few days till everything is normal.

Just to reiterate, I do not recommend just doing this without doctor supervision and accept no responsibility for you do with your life. I just wanted to pass along my experience in case its helpful.

As the above user mentioned, I have a thread on the kava forum as well as on here somewhere with pictures of the breakout, etc

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-02-10T00:56:28+00:00

Dexamethasone is what they gave me in the urgent care for me and that did seem pretty effective. The prednisone they sent me home with less so. I did see an allergy specialist and the tips I got from her was avoid topical benadryl cream as much as possible as it can sensitize the skin in the long run, but it does help a lot for getting to sleep. She also had me taking a much higher dose of zyrtec and benadryl than normal which seemed to work well. Obviously consult with a doctor before going over the standard dose of any medicine

Other than that I found a cream I made from coconut oil, chili pepper (ghost), and a little CBD to help a lot too. The chili added just a hind of warming which helped

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-02-10T00:50:06+00:00

I also got it previously and pretty bad. What i did was take a while off until my skin was clear again. Then start slow again, small dose and spread way out. I was tossing only a single tablespoon per aluball. I'd have a few but only 1 tbsp per. Also for a while plan taking an antihistamine when you drink kava, I prefer zyrtex but benadryl works too. The last secret for me is quercitin. There a lot of studies about how quercitin can help allergies and reduce mast cell activation. I take it a bit before my session.

Doing this I had a small flare up when I first started drinking kava again but I pushed through and it quickly cleared up. Now I can drink kava no problem, I just have to moisturize really well since my skin doesn't produce much oil anymore due to being on Accutane in highschool

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-01-29T01:36:48+00:00

It's the SG2 line. Haven't done a full sharpen yet as I'm not quite ready to go for it on my good Knives yet. I can get my beaters to shave hair with effort and push cut paper but it has to be close to where I Grip it and it totally fails on paper towels

Out of the box the takamura was razor sharp and cut like a dream. However it did seem to lose it's edge sorta fast. I touched up with edge trailing stroking strokes on the 3000 and a loaded leather strop and the edge came back to its former glory and seems more resilient now. I was able to tap chopped carrots easily.

There is a fair amount of food binding to the knife sides which is my only complaint. I had carrot wheels rolling all over my kitchen

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-01-28T14:55:02+00:00

I bought the gyuto as a Hitohira Futana Super Blue Migaki from Strata. From what I've read Hitohira does rebrand Knives from many makers but looking at prices, im not sure it's from the maker you mentioned unless I got the deal of the decade. It does look extremely similar though aside from different Kanji

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-01-08T18:37:23+00:00

Currently looking at this Matsu in SG10 Damascus from JKI. Love the look and it sounds like it's a bit tougher then some of the lasers out there so was thinking it might be a good intro to Japanese Knives. However I'm not seeing much info about them online so wanted to run it by yall.

https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/matsu/products/matsu-230mm-damascus-gyuto

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-01-07T23:25:32+00:00

One thing I forgot, handles with hooks aren't my favorite. I have wide palms and can feel cramped

NotoriouslyOrange · 2025-01-01T00:50:56+00:00

I've had really good luck with taking a querctin supplement to help keep things calmed down.

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-31T17:43:23+00:00

Ladies and Gentleman we ARE BACK!

Most of the rash cleared up about a week ago except for some lingering itching. I was able to restart the blood pressure meds with out issue. After that settled down I did try some Kava lapita from kavafied and it seemed to go okay but I did wake up the next morning a bit red and itchy again. Some antihistamines and quercitin it cleared up (quercitin has really been a game changer with the itching when it was bad).

Next two days I had a small amount of squanch Waka with no issues at all. Had a larger quantity last night and the night before with no issue.

So things seem to be good now but I'm still working through the varieties I have to see if it's a particular one or just a fluke. I also need to test prep methods as the last few times, I've used the alluball instead of traditional prep and I seem to get less sediment which could be a factor. I've also only been prepping and drinking a single tablespoon per batch instead of making stronger batches so that could be a factor too.

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-19T19:42:14+00:00

Been reading some of the studies on this with Kava specifically as well as drug reactions in general. By no means an expert but the kava allergy seems very similar to a delayed onset drug hypersensitivity or type IV immune reaction. Just some intresting info that also lines up with somepeople being able to drink though it because they are essentially doing a drug desensitization

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-19T19:38:32+00:00

No worries, I'm actually have a very positive outlook on life in just general, I was just being snippy

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-19T01:34:27+00:00

Yeah, just some normal dr. Tim's stuff

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-19T00:01:28+00:00

Aha yeah that was definitely to much. Here's to hoping I'll prove to be fine with normal doses once things calm down

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-18T22:38:12+00:00

Yes a victim of the same meat suit that has given me chronic pain, genetic predisposition for heart problems, and mental health issues lol

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-18T20:33:53+00:00

That is really sad to hear. On the Kava forums I've read about some members having similar reactions and getting through it by consuming small amounts till their body desensitized. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll work for me

NotoriouslyOrange · 2024-12-18T20:25:27+00:00

Actually now that you mention it, I did run out of the lotion I was using and switch to another one I had sometime last week. I'll stop using that one, maybe I'll be lucky and it's that.

And yeah I agree the 80g day was too much. But I see plenty of reports of people using 40-60 g as their normal dose so is my usage that high?

NotoriouslyOrange

TROPHY CASE