Thread: I anybody identify this stone ?

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Anybody have any ideal what stone this is?

Better pics will be very helpful in identifying what you got there.
Right now the only thing that this resembles is a 4/8k Norton.

It's a single grit. It says "Do Not Use This Side
For Sharpening"
200304

I'm told it's a Shapton 12k but cuts faster than I thought a 12k would cut.
I just am not sure what it is. I thought somebody on here could help identify it. Lol

Originally Posted by Hthomas

It's a single grit. It says "Do Not Use This Side
For Sharpening"
200304

I'm told it's a Shapton 12k but cuts faster than I thought a 12k would cut.
I just am not sure what it is. I thought somebody on here could help identify it. Lol

If it was a Shapton it would say so. There are two models Shapton has out, Glass and the Pro. none looks like this one.

Actually I'm pretty sure that that is a Shapton stone. I think those are the Japan only versions that some Japanese guys are selling on eBay from Japan.

Edit: yup, here's a link to one of them, check the pictures.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-wat...vip=true&rt=nc

Originally Posted by eKretz

Actually I'm pretty sure that that is a Shapton stone. I think those are the Japan only versions that some Japanese guys are selling on eBay from Japan.

Edit: yup, here's a link to one of them, check the pictures.

Japanese Water Stone Sharpening Whetstone Shapton M5 Cream 12000 Sharpner | eBay

You are correct, I forgot about the M5s. I read somewhere they were the same as the Pros but I have not tried them to compare.

Shapton claimed the density of the abrasive was slightly higher on the professional stones, but I don't know that it would make a difference, anyway, all of these modern stones have such high abrasive density that if you took 20% of the abrasive out and replaced it with binder, you probably wouldn't notice much.

Stu tierney (toolsfromjapan) used one of these as a utility stone and was relatively pleased with it.

The m5 is a budget stone, though, and at the current exchange rates and prices, you can get pro stones so cheap there's not much real savings to getting an m5. Probably some of the M5s and M20 (? is that the designation for the thicker ones) are a lot higher than just getting a pro from stu directly. I've known stu a long time, long before he opened his store - well, as much as you can know anyone through the internet - and stu has never been a fanatical fan of shapton stones, especially vs. sigmas, and he and I have always differed there a little. For tools they are all good, and for razors they probably are, too.

I guess what I didn't clarify in my previous post is that stroke for stroke, the professional should actually be a little faster. With a fresh surface, a shapton pro does cut really fast, 12k included.

I made a comment about the difference in price vs. the m5 and pro. I don't know how much the m5 is, but with the current exhange, a shapton pro cream is about $67 from stu (if you order in yen and let your credit card do the conversion instead of buying in dollars and letting paypal rip you off horribly on the conversion rate).

Wow a great site DaveW.
Im sure you guys are correct about it being an M5 shapton. I'm under the impression that shaptons are like Naniwas in that you just spray them with water and hone. However this one has a much better feel after a 10 min soak. Do you guys know how it is to be used ?

Stu mentioned a while ago that shapton recommends a 10 or 15 minute soak (their instructions were in japanese, so nobody seemed to know that on the tool or knife forums). For almost 10 years, I was a fanatical user of shapton pros, and I wanted the stones to be harder. When stu told me that, I soaked my shapton for 15 minutes and noted that the action was a little smoother and softer.

There's no "proper" way to use them necessarily, just what you prefer. If you like the action with 10 minutes of soak, that's how you should use them. If you want them to be harder and a little more plastic, then no soak is the way to use them.

They are resin bound and I don't know how they'd hold up to an accidental overnight soak, but I wouldn't try it. Their numerical intervals in terms of particle size vs. grit rating suggest to me that they were marketed at first toward knife users (just like choseras, where the 5k chosera particles are only slightly larger than the 10k, despite the "grit" rating being very far apart). At any rate, people honing knives are going to prefer a stone with a bit of slurry action and will probably like the soaked feeling. The same is probably true of razors, though we all do a lot less to kill the fresh surface of our stones than do knife sharpeners and tool honers.