Thread: Read this if you own a SHAPTON!

Ok, now that I got all Shapton owners' attention:

Here's the deal- I had a nice talk with Howard over @ the Perfect Edge. I basically asked if Shapton had any plans to make the glass stones in a narrower width. I first asked about the possibility of cutting a Shapton Pro, but he advised against even trying since the Pro isn't as good an instrument as the glass stones and the Pro's are being discontinued (all according to both Howard and Shapton). Then we got to talking about cutting the Shapton Glass stones and how no one has the balls... ahem... guts to do it because of what it might cost them... i.e. their hone. So here is what we want-

Howard is going to ask Harrelson about Shapton's plans to make a narrower Glass stone line but I am not too hopeful. In the meantime we want to try cutting them ourselves. ***So who among you has a damaged/dysfunctional/chipped/"borrowed"/much used stone? Or maybe you are just unhappy with them?*** I will pay for you to ship it so that we can experiment. Obviously if it works out, you get back the results. If not, then you get back a slightly more dysfunctional hone.

It will work out for everyone! If not in a positive light at least we will then all know not to try cutting your Shapton! Who here will benefit us all at SRP?

You know Alex, a better bet might be to ask anyone interested in this little experiment to donate say, ten dollars to buy a new hone to try it with!


Just a thought!

Originally Posted by JMS

You know Alex, a better bet might be to ask anyone interested in this little experiment to donate say, ten dollars to buy a new hone to try it with!


Just a thought!

Ok, as suggested by Mark, if you'd like to donate any funds to buy a Shapton to test cut in many different ways- PM me!!! It'll be one of the cheaper ones obviously.

How much would the cheapest usable hone cost? Say 1000 grit?

If we all chip in 5 or 10$, we buy a hone for the experiment, and if it succeeds, the 2 hones are raffled among the participants.

I have a set of Shaptons, i bet you could cut them with a stone cutting saw....

also, an idea i had but have not implemented yet to make a narrower stone is to take the Shapton diamond lapping plate and make a 45 degree flat bevel on one side of either a pro stone or glasstone, this would give a nice flat bevel but not too wide either, plus it would keep the stone mostly intact for those nicer blades that truly are flat...

a Shapton is made out of tempered glass if my information is correct, and you can NOT cut it.
Regular glass is easy to cut, but they tempered the glass for safety and strength reasons. if you cut tempered glass, it will explode into small glassfragments (hence the name safetyglass).

yikes, then Shapton would have to make them in narrower widths, somehow i can't see them doing that exclusiveley for the straight razor using community... (

More than one way to skin a cat. I have a bunch of ideas that don't necessarily involve "cutting".

I fear that all your tricks will fail...waterjetting, lasering...

Tempered glass has a tension built up inside the glass, it is very strong on the surface (you can hit it with a hammer), but when you tap with the hamer on the corner of the glass, it will shatter.

So, I'm hoping your tricks work... but for the love of god wear gloves and goggles.

I totally understand all that. But who says the ceramic needs to stay mounted on the glass? Who says that it will be glass the ceramic is remounted on? Also, tempered glass can be annealed and then cut. This is why it will be an experiment, but a measured one!