Thread: Cleaning Shapton Glasstones

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

Well, I finally got around to trying the artificial Nagura stone for cleaning my glass hones.
So, the good news is that the Nagura seemed to clean my hones up a treat without removing much if any of the hone surface itself, contrary to using diamond lapping plates that clean the surface by removing it.

Preliminary results were as above but I had not tried honing a razor afterwards, only woodworking tools. Today I decided to touch up one of my razors on my 16k and the ride was very bumpy.... not at all the smooth sticky glide I'd gotten after lapping on the D8C. So.... back to the DMT and after a short while it was nice and smooth. Now, I did examine the edge after the bumpy ride and it didn't indicate anything had gone wrong but it just wasn't a "good" feel. After the lapping it was cutting smooth and more aggressively than before as well so the diamond plate is the way to go for cleaning.

Regards

Kaptain "You win some, you loose some." Zero

After working on 15 or so razors I used my natural nagura stone to clean my 8000 and 16000 Shapton glass hones. The nagura stone completely cleaned the metal off the hones and even with the 16000 the honing action seems to be smoother and more consistent.. I shave tested 2 different razors and had very good results. Maybe in the future the Shapton's will need to be lapped-but for simple clean up-the nagura stone did the job.

You might just have something there with using a *natural* nagura stone rather than the cheapo artificial one I used. Come to think of it, I need to go back and re-evaluate the experiment I did because I did something out of the ordinary... I used my Shaptons to hone a set of woodworking blades which is a lot rougher on the hones than razors will ever be. I used a honing guide with them as well so the wheel on the guide has been tracking back and forth... perhaps the roughness I felt was simply the result of my heavy handed honing?!?!? The theory would seem sound, using a Nagura to clean the surface... Me thinks me will try again. Thanks for the post.

Regards

Christian

I have a DVD coming out in the next couple of weeks about this. It's a video of Harrelson Stanley and myself honing razors on Shapton stones. The care of shaptons is way different from naturals like belgians or eshers. First, I got a nice pressurized sprayer at the hardware store (photo here) and use that to keep the stone clean . . . often! Then I take my GDLP and lap it 3 or 4 strokes to get the metal residue off the stone and to keep it flat. I use the GDLP when I see metal building up on the stone and I wash both the stone and the GDLP to prevent cross contamination. Way more often than every few razors. Use often but with just a few strokes. The shaptons are thoroughbreds and need a lot of care in use. In return you'll get awesomely sharp edges.

Originally Posted by Howard

I have a DVD coming out in the next couple of weeks about this. It's a video of Harrelson Stanley and myself honing razors on Shapton stones. The care of shaptons is way different from naturals like belgians or eshers. First, I got a nice pressurized sprayer at the hardware store (photo here) and use that to keep the stone clean . . . often! Then I take my GDLP and lap it 3 or 4 strokes to get the metal residue off the stone and to keep it flat. I use the GDLP when I see metal building up on the stone and I wash both the stone and the GDLP to prevent cross contamination. Way more often than every few razors. Use often but with just a few strokes. The shaptons are thoroughbreds and need a lot of care in use. In return you'll get awesomely sharp edges.

I don't know if Harrelson invented that idea or not but it's a darn good item.Near like having running water wherever you go, keeps you out of the kitchen ... i've been using one ever since i got his chisel dvd 4 or so years ago.

thr throughbred analogy may be a little off-putting to some they are just sharpening stones imho.

I use the DGLP to clean and lap my Shaptons. Just do three or four strokes whenever you see too much steel in the stone. How much is too much? On a 16k or 30k you're not going to get a lot and I'll lap it after I finish a razor. I would not recommend the use of Comet or anything that is not really designed for that purpose. Using an uncontrolled abrasive can scratch the Shapton, introduce impurities into the surface and otherwise eventually degrade performance. Another fellow said he uses a Japanese Nagura to clean his Shaptons. Nagura are natural products and often have sand in them. It's just too chancy to risk hurting such a highly engineered stone. Lap a few times with the DGLP and keep spraying the stone and the DGLP with water to keep clean.