Thread: Shapton Ceramic on glass hones

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

Did any of you gents who bought the glass hones also buy a Shapton Sharpening Stone Holder? If you did, was it really worth it to you? It's nice that it's made from rubber, but $80?!?! Seems a tad steep to me.

Regards

Christian

I did. The glass hones are nice but thin. The holder is at a perfect height for me and makes use very easy.

Lynn

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

As I understand it, the use of the diamond plate should be immediately before actual use to true up the stone, eliminating any warping from retained moisture and that truing a stone after use is worthless as it may again warp before next use. So, while the stones don't require soaking and the instructions indeed say to not leave the stones in water, the need to flatten just before use would seem to take as much time as soaking a Norton. However, the reports of superior honing quality still intrigue me enough to try this system.

I'm going to hold off for a short while yet.... I still seem to have some smoke trailing from my credit cards... I have no idea why.


Regards

Christian

Where did you hear this about having to lap the ceramic on glass plates before each and every use regardless of the amount of use prior to the current honing session? I've never heard this nor do the instructions mention such a practice. Harrelson Stanley, the factory distributor whom I've talked with also did not advocate such a practice. I have now amassed the ceramic on glass 2000 grit and 16000 grit and will be using them shortly. I also sprung for the Glass Diamond Lapping Plate and I think it's just awesome.

Chris L

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

Did any of you gents who bought the glass hones also buy a Shapton Sharpening Stone Holder? If you did, was it really worth it to you? It's nice that it's made from rubber, but $80?!?! Seems a tad steep to me.

Regards

Christian

I bought THIS from Woodcraft and it works great for all my hones and fits the Shapton ceramic on glass stones perfectly as well. I recommend this one and at $14 it's a great deal. Even though I feel like I want to buy all the Shapton ceramic on glass stones from 500 grit on up to 30000 I did think about buying the Shapton stone holder as well just to......keep it Shapton, but the holder mentioned here works like a champ for me.

Chris L

Chris,

I was referring to the Pro stones with that comment and it was not my intention to make it sound like the factory was promoting this. However, if you watch the video on the Shapton site, the gent does refer to lapping just before sharpening (again, using the Pro stones). It's been a while since I was scurrying about the net looking for info on the Shaptons but that warping thing stuck in my mind (that came from one of the forums if I recall correctly). I have no personal experience with any of the Shaptons yet. I believe I pointed out in the same post that I thought that perhaps the glass backing was Shaptons way of dealing with the slight warping of the Pro stones..... After all, if you are going to shoot for the sub 0.001" flatness, there's not much room for moisture generated movement. Even micrometers used by machinists are mounted in a holder when high accuracy is required, as the heat from ones hand, heating up the micrometer can be enough to throw the readings off.

That Diamond Glass plate looks sweet... I'm teetering on the edge about to order a whole dang set of hones and the diamond plate but <gulp>, it's hard to justify those $$$, just to save a few bucks on razor blades!

Yes, I've seen those rubber stone holders locally.... the price is a bit sweeter than the Shapton version.

Regards

Christian

zero, amazingly, machinists also have to worry about temperature tolerances in different ROOMS. A favorite story of my great-grandfather's was from when he was a tool and die maker at Allison Transmission the inspection room was about 3 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the machine room. The subtle difference between these two rooms required him to re-machine several precision tools before they could pass inspection. Eventually, he had to devise a way to cool the tools before he measured them (though I can't remember how he did this anymore) so he could pass these inspections on the first go. Just a funny little anecdote to show that low tolerance for shift, error, and warp involves a lot of different variables that most of us would never think to consider.

Yepp, first thing you do is tap the thermometer in the room to make sure it's sitting pretty at 18c...... well, at least us metric guys do.

When it comes to honing razors, all this accuracy doesn't amount to a hill of beans really... Over the width of a razors bevel, we're talking molecules in difference between a perfectly flat hone and one that's out 0.001" over an 8" length. The film of water being used for lubrication while honing will add more error than what we're talking about... add a few particles of slurry and all bets are off.

And yet.... it's a damn fine honing system by all accounts. Urgl..... I can't resist!

Regards

Kaptain "I'm sooooo weeeeak" Zero

The biggest thing for me when looking at a system like this is durability. I have my vintage combo belgian, but it has obviously seen years of hard use. If I take it out of all service, excepting razor honing, from this day forward, it should last me the rest of my life (hopefully a good long time from now). If I pick up a Shapton system, it should be able to do my plane blades, chisels, stoopid sharp knives, and all the other toys I pick up in the future without ending up needing replacement. The other option (since I have a sweet lapping plate already) is to just buy a second belgian combo or just a coticule (my combo has TONS of blue left). Now that I think about it, it seems kind of like a no-brainer.

Ok... I is as schmart as the next guy, but really.... since when did "BRAINS" have anything to do with this?!?!?

Regards

Kaptain "I've lost it for good now..." Zero

Now you guys have me lusting after new hones...!