Thread: Glass stones vs Shapton pros?

Originally Posted by jigane

And to be honest why even make a 1500 and a 1k and a 2k?? and then nothing until 5k? and then nothing upto 8k?

I wonder why the gray carbon specific glass stones are gray. Is it possibly so simple as this: if they put SiC in the stones now they classify them as corbon stones? Do the gray glass stones contain SiC?

Because the system works. It is not uncommon.
King makes a 300 800 1000 & 1200. That'll have you scratching your head now eh ?

I wouldn't assume the grey stones have SiC in them. They are a gentler cutter than the white stones.

Originally Posted by jigane

The iwasaki has a muted tip. Is that they way they do them these days?

"I was going to do it myself but not that big. Its about 2mm diagonally."

yes.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I do not recommend the 30K until you have literally mastered your stones. I have found that less than 3% of the razors made can handle that fine of an edge and it's an edge that I personally don't care to shave with.

Shooter, while honing is far off in the distance for me as I just got my first straight on 1/23/16, I was just curious. You mention less than 3% of razors can handle the 30K. Is that due to steels or is it just little imperfections in the manufacturing process that preclude most razors from benefiting from the 30K?

Also, with regards to the edge...too aggressive? FWIW, I learned on a shavette for 3 months before coming to the SR. I can take a feather in the shavette and get BBS shaves all over my face save for the chin and under the nose (DFS on both them) without razor burn or even a cut, so long as I do not try to rush anything. Is such an edge comparable to the 30K?

Originally Posted by donaldjr1969

Shooter, while honing is far off in the distance for me as I just got my first straight on 1/23/16, I was just curious. You mention less than 3% of razors can handle the 30K. Is that due to steels or is it just little imperfections in the manufacturing process that preclude most razors from benefiting from the 30K?

Also, with regards to the edge...too aggressive? FWIW, I learned on a shavette for 3 months before coming to the SR. I can take a feather in the shavette and get BBS shaves all over my face save for the chin and under the nose (DFS on both them) without razor burn or even a cut, so long as I do not try to rush anything. Is such an edge comparable to the 30K?

First, lets put things in perspective, but remember that we are talking about synthetics. A normal whisker, for a razor, is literally the equivalent of cutting a pure copper strand of the same diameter. Now, lets look at the cutting edge of the razor, the finer the edge, the more fragile the edge is & starts chipping away. So in a nutshell, the GS30K will make the edge on most razors just too fine, with just 2-3 light x strokes. Even if you have a hard razor that can handle the edge, the shave from such a razor is what I consider quite "crisp"...almost spooky to shave with. I personally like a semi crisp edge, but that edge is too much for even me and I shave a lot during the week with feather DE blades now days.

I passed my 30K around a bit for others to experiment with and ended up selling it to a machinist up north.

From my experience, talking synthetics only, the G20 is about as fine of a hone as a normal every day quality razor can handle. Natural stones are a whole other ball of wax & IMO should be approached only after you are a seasoned honer.

I substantiated my findings with some of the more experienced honers & their findings were the same, you will find some conversations on the stone if you use the search box at the top right of the home page.

Now that is an interesting observation, and really one worthy of a separate thread.

While I don’t have a Shapton 30K, I have experienced much the same with film and too many laps on a GS20 or high grit nano grit pastes.

Feathers are not for everyone and for some razors high grit stones and paste and too many laps will cause edge failure. Sometimes you can get a handful of great shaves, then they fail.

Really I too think we are talking about the edge of performance of a synthetic hone/paste, add in a vintage razor of unknown history… It would be interesting to see what number of razors that can handle a synthetic of that caliber.

Probably why, old Sheffield’s seem to prefer old Slates so well.

Anyone have a good lapping protocol for the glass stones? My 500 has been acting very strange and lost a lot of cut post lap. Only lapped at 220. Final refresh with something coarser?

Mine did that too, I looked at it under the microscope. I found that the slurry had filled the stone as I was only using a little water. I re-lapped it under constant running water and the problem went away. Rinse it off real good, under the sprayer if you have one.

I will give it a try. It been really inconvenient. I lapped it coarsely to true it and remove swarf and I don't want to say glaze, but the stone went into some very odd halfway state. Odd binder, but maybe to be expected to be able to sell such a thin hone and have it be viable.

My 200 (or 220) is dished and I have left it that way because of this. I only use it when freehanding a new knife or razor, but even then not much any more. These stones excell imo from 2K up.

There is a lot to like with the glass stones. They are hard, don't load with metal the way regular Japanese waterstones do, very generous surface area, small form factor, pretty much splash and go, the lapping issue is just horrible though