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

So many stones. So little time.

Originally Posted by mrjin

Thanks for the updates.

I'm not sure if they really resolved the problems yet. I just noticed small round holes/pits on the new stone surface, which are around 0.3mm diameter. Initially I thought they were just swarfs but it turned out to be holes. Hopefully they were just bubbles during manufacturing and do not grow.

The new price is no longer a deal. It's higher than Naniwa 12Ks and significantly higher than Shapton Pro 12K. Proyan 15K is slightly finer than those, but given the uncertainty of the quality, I can hardly find a reason to buy them any more, especially there import taxes on top of it.

mrjin

I remember one of the stones in my first set had a couple of small holes in the beginning too. It were indeed small air bubbles that dissapeared after some lapping and they had no effect on the honing. The new stones seem a little more porous than the previous at first, but I am under the impression that they become harder and harder afer few lappings. I have had no problem whatsoever with the new set I received from Taidea. As a European, I don't think your comparison with the 12K nani or the Shapton Pro 12K is fair. The nani is a very good stone, but I think the 15K Proyan gives the better, more natural feeling skin-friendly edge. Here in Belgium, the thin 1cm version of the 12K without backup costs €79 an personally, I would not want to trade it to my 15K. I believe the Shapton 12K (Kuromaku) can be compared to a Shapton glass 16K. The 16K mentions a particle size of 0.92µ and costs about €140 over here. The Proyan mentions a particle size of 0.64µ, what comes close to your Shapton 30K or a Suehiro GK20K around 0.49/0.5µ. The 30K is €290 over here... The most important thing to me however is the performance of the 15K as I think it is one of the few synthetic finishers that can make people who look for a smoother, natural feeling finish happy.

Originally Posted by therapy

mrjin

I remember one of the stones in my first set had a couple of small holes in the beginning too. It were indeed small air bubbles that dissapeared after some lapping and they had no effect on the honing. The new stones seem a little more porous than the previous at first, but I am under the impression that they become harder and harder afer few lappings. I have had no problem whatsoever with the new set I received from Taidea. As a European, I don't think your comparison with the 12K nani or the Shapton Pro 12K is fair. The nani is a very good stone, but I think the 15K Proyan gives the better, more natural feeling skin-friendly edge. Here in Belgium, the thin 1cm version of the 12K without backup costs €79 an personally, I would not want to trade it to my 15K. I believe the Shapton 12K (Kuromaku) can be compared to a Shapton glass 16K. The 16K mentions a particle size of 0.92µ and costs about €140 over here. The Proyan mentions a particle size of 0.64µ, what comes close to your Shapton 30K or a Suehiro GK20K around 0.49/0.5µ. The 30K is €290 over here... The most important thing to me however is the performance of the 15K as I think it is one of the few synthetic finishers that can make people who look for a smoother, natural feeling finish happy.

Hey Peter, thanks for the details. Please don't take me wrong, I do prefer the edge off Taidea 15K over Shapton 12K, especially over Naniwa Kagayaki 12K(As I mentioned before, edge off Kagayaki 12K behaved really bizarrely). What I meant was that the price was no longer making sense to me.

I'm in Australia. I got my Shapton Pro Kuromaku 12K(15mm) for AUD 68, Shapton Pro Kuromaku 30K(15mm) for AUD 364, Nainiwa Kagayaki 12K(20mm) for AUD 83. Those prices were shipped price. For any thing I get from AliExpress there is another 10% GST on top. So 63€ will become 69.3€ or ~ 114.8 AUD, almost double of Kuromaku 12K. I guess with those prices, it will make a lot more sense to you regarding my comparisons. I should have mentioned my prices in the first place though.

I too find this proyan 15k to be good for delivering a balance of crisp keenness and skin friendliness. My one real concern is whether it lasts a reasonable amount of time. At the $36 or $39 US I paid it is possibly expendable and could be used up quickly and discarded then replaced with another and still be a worthy investment. At twice that price it might not be but hopefully it will have been adequately improved and the value come in a different way.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I too find this proyan 15k to be good for delivering a balance of crisp keenness and skin friendliness. My one real concern is whether it lasts a reasonable amount of time. At the $36 or $39 US I paid it is possibly expendable and could be used up quickly and discarded then replaced with another and still be a worthy investment. At twice that price it might not be but hopefully it will have been adequately improved and the value come in a different way.

Hey, not sure if you have played with your Taidea 15K recently. I tried it again with a knife and it looked becoming much harder than I received it. I felt the knife was literally skidding a little bit on it, which was less than desired. It also seemed to become slower but not too much...

Originally Posted by therapy

Hi mrjin

Sorry for the late answer, but I 'm in the middle of a bathroom renovation project, so I'm quite busy at the moment. Glad to hear your stone arrived! Yes, at first the stone takes some water but not much. After a couple of splashes, or soaking for a minute the water should stay on top. It would be interesting to know how the edges of your new Shapton 30K compare to the Proyan? I would imagine the 30K edge is way sharper, but what about smoothness?

Peter.

Hey Peter, just to give you another update on the Shapton 30K. So I had to refresh the edge off it after around 15 shaves, which was less than what I have expected. I only do preshave stropping on plain leather, so not too bad. I could see micro chips grew on the edge, and I managed to remove them after 10 strokes on Shapton Pro 12K. This time I only did 8 laps each side on the 30K, just curious to see whether I can get 20 out of it. So far I did not feel any difference with the sharpless, I guess I might be able to get it after only 5 laps.

End of Saga, started to crack again. However, this time it cracks from the sides.

Hi mrjin

Sorry for this late post... When I saw your post in my mail, I said oh no, not again and thought I gotta give this up... Now that I see your stone for the first time I want to ask you if it's possible to send closer pictures of the cracks, as I cant see them? What I can see is that there is a little layer on sides of the stone that tends to come off (also with mine) but this does not get worse. By light sanding you can get it back even and it wont return. I even have to say that my first 15K is still in use and is doing fine... with frequent lapping, the microcracks dissapeared and did not return. If the new series really show cracking problems, I decided not to post a review, as the last thing I want is to get people into troubles...

Originally Posted by therapy

Hi mrjin

Sorry for this late post... When I saw your post in my mail, I said oh no, not again and thought I gotta give this up... Now that I see your stone for the first time I want to ask you if it's possible to send closer pictures of the cracks, as I cant see them? What I can see is that there is a little layer on sides of the stone that tends to come off (also with mine) but this does not get worse. By light sanding you can get it back even and it wont return. I even have to say that my first 15K is still in use and is doing fine... with frequent lapping, the microcracks dissapeared and did not return. If the new series really show cracking problems, I decided not to post a review, as the last thing I want is to get people into troubles...

No worries. I wished it would not happen again but unfortunately it's true. So far the cracks are hairy and since it's from the edge into the center, I don't think they will be issues for a while, but I'm not sure how fast those crack will progress.

And it's really hard to take clear pictures and I guess I need a camera stand. Also the pictures are compressed after uploaded, making it even worse...

Originally Posted by mrjin

No worries. I wished it would not happen again but unfortunately it's true. So far the cracks are hairy and since it's from the edge into the center, I don't think they will be issues for a while, but I'm not sure how fast those crack will progress.

And it's really hard to take clear pictures and I guess I need a camera stand. Also the pictures are compressed after uploaded, making it even worse...

The cracks are those hairy lines vertical to the glass. Worst one is now about 2mm deep...