Thread: Shapton 16k, mixed grit??

Originally Posted by Marshal

Instead of reading junk from 3rd party sites you could always go straight to the source...



https://www.shapton.com/glassstone-series

The thing is that Dictum is a well respected seller in Europe. So I am left wondering where they got that piece
of (mis)information.

I doubt that Dictum knows more about the Shapton abrasives than Shapton does.

From Shapton...

Shapton-engineered abrasives are available in extremely uniform particle matrices. A .92 micron (#16000) Shapton abrasive has a uniformity of +/- .01 microns. This level of uniformity does not occur in nature and is unmatched by competing products. Shapton's 29.4 micron (#500) is used to quickly form geometry. The .49 micron (#30,000), on the other hand, is used to polish surfaces into a resilient, high mirror finish. Shapton's precise uniformity ensures the consistency of these scratch patterns. Natural stones and competing man-made stones do not exhibit this level of uniformity.

That is a German site so could there be a translation miscue from German to English in what they are trying to say?

Bob

That sentence is NOT saying that the 16K Shapton Glass hone is made from *mixed* grits (Baltic Hand Tools site). It is a typical computer translation (google style translation) of one language to another where grammar rules are different. As I don't speak the original language, I can't say for sure exactly what they are talking about, but I did live in Europe for 13 years and I know that German grammar puts words in a different order than English.

It looks like they are trying to make some point about progression from low grit to high grit, but I'm not quite sure what they are talking about.

Rest assured, Shapton uses a carefully graded grit in each hone... though I do recall reading that they have some glass hones made specifically for tougher steels, or perhaps it was for carbon steel tools?!?!? It would still be single grit, just a different material for the grit and perhaps a different binder.

From that Baltic Hand Tools site we have:

In blade sharpening tests there was nonoticeable difference in sharpness betweena jump 2000 to 16.000 (mixed grit) anda standard sharpening procedure.

As Utopian points out... ALWAYS go to the horses mouth, as in the Manufacturer.... Websites are not written by skilled woodworkers or razor honers, they are written by web designers and marketing departments. One can only hope a person with knowledge, took the time to read the web page, and in this case, I suspect it's simply a fast and dirty computer translation proof read by a native speaking craftsman who has a poor grasp of the foreign language. Dictum (the business) may have a solid reputation, but Dictum is just a name on a piece of paper used for creating a business entity, not an all knowing, all seeing super craftsman.

Anyone who has suffered through "Chinglish" manuals knows what I mean when I say "computer translation", which ranks right up there with "spell checking". You may have spelled the word "two" correctly, but when you meant "too", spell checking doesn't really help much.

Regards

Kaptain "Grammar grouch" Zero

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

As Utopian points out... ALWAYS go to the horses mouth, as in the Manufacturer.... Websites are not written by skilled woodworkers or razor honers, they are written by web designers and marketing departments. One can only hope a person with knowledge, took the time to read the web page, and in this case, I suspect it's simply a fast and dirty computer translation proof read by a native speaking craftsman who has a poor grasp of the foreign language. Dictum (the business) may have a solid reputation, but Dictum is just a name on a piece of paper used for creating a business entity, not an all knowing, all seeing super craftsman.

Anyone who has suffered through "Chinglish" manuals knows what I mean when I say "computer translation", which ranks right up there with "spell checking". You may have spelled the word "two" correctly, but when you meant "too", spell checking doesn't really help much.

Regards

Kaptain "Grammar grouch" Zero

Ain't that the truth though.

Bob

I've also been curious for a while why Dictum sells the 16k for less than the 10k and about their claim regarding the 16k being a 'mixed grit' stone:

- 8k = 90.70 euros
- 10k = 149 euros
- 16k = 113 euros

I purchased my 16k from them at the low price at least five years ago. I also have the 10k and my 16k achieves a better polish than the 10k, which you'd expect. The Dictum prices increase progressively as the grits increase for the 11 GS stones they sell from 220 to 30k - but the 16k is the only exception to their price progression. Strange but I'm not complaining because a) for me the performance is there and b) I love bargains!

Originally Posted by MichaelS

I've also been curious for a while why Dictum sells the 16k for less than the 10k and about their claim regarding the 16k being a 'mixed grit' stone:

- 8k = 90.70 euros
- 10k = 149 euros
- 16k = 113 euros

I purchased my 16k from them at the low price at least five years ago. I also have the 10k and my 16k achieves a better polish than the 10k, which you'd expect. The Dictum prices increase progressively as the grits increase for the 11 GS stones they sell from 220 to 30k - but the 16k is the only exception to their price progression. Strange but I'm not complaining because a) for me the performance is there and b) I love bargains!

The 10K was difficult to find for a time. Maybe low production, I don't know. It's also very popular. Supply and demand I suppose. They could charge more for the 10K and they did. Both are great hones.

Originally Posted by kelbro

The 10K was difficult to find for a time. Maybe low production, I don't know. It's also very popular. Supply and demand I suppose. They could charge more for the 10K and they did. Both are great hones.

Bet they'd sell more 16K hones if they had the proper information up there...if I were considering one and read that without knowing better, I'd probably reconsider the purchase.