Thread: New Taidea Proyan glass series... Anyone did anyone else try these?

Originally Posted by DawidEs

I am attaching photos. The stone was not immersed. Only water for the surface and sharpening.

Hi DawidEs

In case I gave you the impression that I doubted your bad experience, I apologize. In the pictures you show above, there is clearly something very wrong with your hone! On the other hand, I have the 240, 1K, 6K, 10K and 15K and had no problems after months of intense use and the reason I talk about them in here is because the edge they leave is execptionally sharp and smooth. Before I ordered mine, I contacted Taidea obout these Proyan glass hones. According to them, these represent their top line hones and they should be very suitable for sharpening razors. Taidea is the biggest sharpening supplier in China I would be surprised if they would not be interested in analysing what exactly went wrong with the hone you show in the pic and do what they can to make you a happy customer. Of course, you can also head for one of the big brands like Naniwa or Shapton and that would be a good choise, but you can also find threads about nani's not staying flat, chosera's cracking up, shaptons microchipping edges...

Well, it was cheap and worth a trial run so I have a 15k on the way. I'll let you know my impressions although I won't be able to use it as a system by itself. But I planned to use it with the Norton 1k, 4k, 8k then sharpton 12k.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well, it was cheap and worth a trial run so I have a 15k on the way. I'll let you know my impressions although I won't be able to use it as a system by itself. But I planned to use it with the Norton 1k, 4k, 8k then sharpton 12k.

Hi PaulFLUS, I will be very interested to hear your findings about the 15K. After flattening and chamfering, it should be ready and able to give you very nice shaving edges! Good luck, Peter.

So I have had the 15k now for a little while. As would be expected the stone was not flat. That is not a major strike against it because many stones , maybe most are not completely flat out of the box. It flattened easily enough though but I did get a couple of tiny "potholes" in the stone afterwards that do not seem to effect the performance. I ordered from Amazon and mine came with a little dressing/slurry stone shaped like a tiny flattening stone about 1" X 2" plus a set of gloves and a cloth. Unfortunately there was not any literature with it at all.

I first tried it after 8k Norton thinking 12k (sharpton) was too close before really realizing that in a moment of cranial-rectumitis I was forgetting how many zeros were involved; 12k to 15k is a jump of 3 thousand NOT 3 hundred numbskull!

Once I walked off the brain cramp and went to it from 12k the results improved quite dramatically. I have been very pleased with the edges and the performance. It cuts surprisingly fast. It gives good feedback. Being white it shows swarf well. The edge is also more of a jump in keenness than I expected from 12k plus it is not prickly like the sharpton 12k , in fact the shave is quite comfortable

Overall I would say it was a worthy purchase. I think I paid about $36-$37 for it after tax so even if the life is not as long as other comparable stones it could still be considered worth the money.
Since I am going to it from a somewhat crazed sharpton 12k I am interested to hear how it works as a system with the other stones.

Hi Paul
Thank for your feedback on the 15K. The jump from 12K to 15K does not say all that much when comparing different brands. The Taidea however also mentions that the abrasive used is 0.62µ, putting it closer to a Shapton Glass 30K or SG 20K than to a Shapton Glass 16K and those are some really expensive hones. Grit size doesn't say it all though...

About the "potholes": My first set showed these too but the new ones Taidea sent me are harder and denser and do not show them. Als long as your stone does not show any other problems, you will be fine, but if it starts losing tiny pieces as in the pictures at the beginning of the thread and gets worse, I would contact Taidea.

I just started testing the full new set and will report about my findings, but that can take a while because I want to make sure that the problems that showed up with the first set won't return.

My curiosity and perhaps hope is that the set used as a system is quicker for both the purposes of time and wear on both the stone and the razors.

Originally Posted by DawidEs

I am attaching photos. The stone was not immersed. Only water for the surface and sharpening.

I got a completely different problem. So it crazed pretty badly.

Originally Posted by mrjin

I got a completely different problem. So it crazed pretty badly.

That stone looks terrible. How old is the stone? Have you contacted the seller/manufacturer?

Around 8 months. Never submerged or kept it wet for a long time. Only used it for 5, 6 times. The largest craze is about 0.2mm wide. The top surface is actually not that bad, except on one corner which has a big one in it.

Got it from the following link. Just contacted the seller, so far the seller only wants to provide a $10 discount, which is a joke.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003545270291.html

If not the craze, the stone is actually good.

Hi mrjin
My First 15K had the same problem. Other stones in the series had different problems. I contacted Taidea about it and they told me they had problems with temperature and moisture during the hardening process in the past. These problems were addressed and should be solved with the newer stones. They sent me a complete new set for free that I'm testing right now and so far everything is ok, the stones are great. You should contact Taidea about it, their customer service is very good. Kind regards, Peter.