Thread: New Shapton 8K is nice

Yes, they're non-US Shapton Pros. Here's a breakdown of the Shapton line:

Shapton Glass HR (white) - designed to cut the Lie-Nielsen stainless A2 plane steel, the softest and fastest and releases fresh sharp grit easily. This is why Glen doesn't recommend them for beginners I believe. Grits are designed to double (or be able to double) in the Glass series for the most part.

Shapton Pro/Kuromaku - the older 'traditional' line, these are harder and slower. Grits are kind of graded 'coarse, medium, fine' and aren't designed to double.

Shapton Glass HC (grey) - the newest series, still incomplete, allegedly more like the Pro but on glass. I did see some microchipping (rare for me) on hard Kikuboshi Swedish steel wirh the 8k HR that I did not see with the 8k Pro but that's the only example so far.

Cheers, Steve

Steve,

Thanks so much for the breakdown, I currently use a Chosera 1K for bevel set, chipping, correcting geometry issues but if the razor has no issues I usually start on the Shapton 4K HR with a light DN slurry then rinse it off as I go then go to the Shapton 8K HR and this completes my mid work, to me the Shapton HR stones cut very fast and can grind away steel pretty quickly if not careful, after the 8K I use a NN 12 that I got pretty cheap but it's not bad using it before I go to my favorite JNAT finisher with a double tomo finish.

Originally Posted by Steve56

Yes, they're non-US Shapton Pros. Here's a breakdown of the Shapton line:

Shapton Glass HR (white) - designed to cut the Lie-Nielsen stainless A2 plane steel, the softest and fastest and releases fresh sharp grit easily. This is why Glen doesn't recommend them for beginners I believe. Grits are designed to double (or be able to double) in the Glass series for the most part.

Shapton Pro/Kuromaku - the older 'traditional' line, these are harder and slower. Grits are kind of graded 'coarse, medium, fine' and aren't designed to double.

Shapton Glass HC (grey) - the newest series, still incomplete, allegedly more like the Pro but on glass. I did see some microchipping (rare for me) on hard Kikuboshi Swedish steel wirh the 8k HR that I did not see with the 8k Pro but that's the only example so far.

Cheers, Steve

Thanks...
I was looking for the unobtanium hone and stumbled on these.
I was having trouble taming the White shapton Glass hones. Just too darn sharp at 30K
I tried the 12K and it quickly gave me a nice sharp shaver so I was feeling flush and
tried the 8K and was very pleased.

In part there was a discussion where someone had a 4K/8K combo and the 4K half was
about finished. I started thinking about what single grit hone family I would begin to
backfill as each needed replacement and what single grit hone might best be the lone hone
or hone pair that a shaver can live with.

I think the 8K hone is under appreciated no matter the brand. The shave off this one was
better than I expected by a lot.

After playing with the new hone and the old ones.

It is a darn fine hone.
In the company of modern 8K hones from Japan it is an
equal among giants.

The number of strokes and the feel might differ but it
is an honest 8k hone and the hand of the person doing
the honing is more variable than the three modern 8k hones
in my kit.

Yes, even the 8K side of my Norton combo.

On the splash and go side of things... I now ignore
the soak and use running water.

I have been playing with honing under running water
and never let the hone develop a slurry. With all
my 8k and 12k hones a light hand and running water
the edge and polish is much improved.

Slurry and residue from a nagura can be less than valuable IMO
in the context of a smooth finish.

If you have a decent 8k you should be able to get a great 8k edge
from it by going back to basics.

If you do not have an 8k hone put this one on the list.

I recently acquired a 1.5k and a 5k Shapton kuromaku and like them very much. These followed by a coticule and a Welsh purple slate lead to a very nice edge for me. Still, I am curious about this synth line and don't have a lot of experience with synths as finishers. As I am jumping from 1.5k to 5k like this, I'm thinking to try the 12k kuromaku for starters, skipping the 8k. What do you all think about this? In essence, I think it would sort of be like going from the 5k straight to the Welsh purple slate, skipping the coticule, which I've never tried. I don't want to buy both right now, though. But I'm sure that if I were to buy the 8k first and liked it, then I would want the 12k afterwards, so why not risk the big jump to see if it works, sort of like 1.5k > 5k works in lieu of 1k > 2k > 5k?

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

I recently acquired a 1.5k and a 5k Shapton kuromaku and like them very much. These followed by a coticule and a Welsh purple slate lead to a very nice edge for me.

The personal answer is your shave with your razors.
Welsh slate and your face may be the best you can do.

My face and razors ... I am still hunting for a good shaver some DE blades get close
but with the swirls that my whiskers have any direction is against the grain and is less
than ideal.

A dirty strop (well used canvas with +6 month old 0.5micron diamond) works well to calm
the crazy sharp shapton glass edges I get. Latherin makes a lot of edges work well.
I have stopped playing with different shave soaps and concentrate on one for at least
a month of shaving. Running water on 8K and finer is making me smile.

It is a challenge... My 30 year old coticle is giving me better edges under running water too.
Well back to baseball. The game just tied up.... ;-)