Thread: Grit sizes

Shapton uses another kind of grit measuring type,
called the "Mesh-Size".
The Mesh Size is referred to on the back of the Glasstones,
right next to the actual grit size in micron,
unfortunately without any tolerances.

The Mesh-System is actually referring to a Wire-Mesh,
and theoretically the number indicates the density of a wiremesh that was used
to sort the grits out, in respect to the actual wire diameter

I guess things got a little out of hand
because wiremeshes could be used for sorting standart sandpaper grit sizes
but were nowadays commonly used for diamond pastes
wich came to be widely availiable.
But who could possibly think about a wire mesh designed to sieve out 0.5µm particles

The Mesh grit system is somewhat more reliable when it comes to higher grit sizes,
because Jis System stops at 8.000, everything beyond it is not covered by the system
(wich doesn´t mean it don´t exist)
The thing is, there seem to be many interpretations of the mesh system as well *sigh*
Maybe they all refer to different wire diameters (d'uh)

0.5µm is ofte times referred to as 50.000 Mesh,
sometimes it´s 60.000
and Shapton says it´s 30.000 ....
btw. Shapton 16k would translate into JIS 14k, I guess

I think we will have to get used to the fact that we will never be sure
if one hone is actually finer grained than the other.
But that is not a big deal, because even though we would now it
it wouldn´t asure a better finish, keener edge, smoother shave

So what I do is, I rely on the numbers as little as possible.
I know that my Shapton 5.000 comes before my Naniwa 8.000
for example.
But I am open minded when it comes to
Shapton 5k or BBW first?
Naniwa 10k or Shapton 16k first, or maybe after the Chinese 12k?
So when it comes to finishing I refer to feeling more than numbers.
If a Naniwa 10k gives me a better shave on a certain razor
than the Shapton 16k did, I am perfectly fine with that,
even though numbers would indicate different.
It´s a lot trial and error

But you should not let yourself get confused.
A finisher is a finisher. Even though in my example above the Naniwa 10k
provided me a better shave than the Shapton 16k,
that doesn´t mean you have to go and buy both!

You cannot rely on the numbers given by the factory
if you want to compare hones with other brands.
But you can certainly rely on them as "relative progression scales".
So you will most of the time definitely know a Naniwa SS 8k comes after a SS 5k,
but maybe not before a King 8k, for example.