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