Thread: German Synthetic Hones... HELP!

By my count this means that the J8000 is not worse than 3 micron, and unless the Henckels is some weird grade other than JIS, should be at least equivalent to the Norton 8k.

Originally Posted by khaos

....unless the Henckels is some weird grade other than JIS....

Right there you hit the nail on the head about the Grit rating systems.....


I have spent an awfully long time compiling and recompiling a grit comparison list, there is precious little concrete refrences for the grit ratings that a given manufacturer uses so it makes things decidedly muddled. There are Government sponsored grit rating systems and manufacturer sponsored grit rating systems, and they are ALL different to some degree. There are different numbering systems, the grit measurement method is different, measurement equipment is different, and acceptable limits of error are different not only for each rating system but also for each manufacturer! (except a few, and those are the ones I have used for my rating comparison)

If you take a piece of 3M brand 2000 grit sand paper, there will be particles stuck to it with a range of roughly 0.98 micron to 1.2 micron, they do not separate out only the particles that are 1.0 micron exactly....but if you bought some other brand of 2000 grit sand paper, their standards might be different and be something like 0.95 micron to 1.5 micron, this doesn't sound like much but it all depends on how particular you want to be with your sanding or honing.

Keeping this in mind, every manufactured stone that has a grit rating will also fall under similar limits of grit size, so the King 1200 grit stone I have, assuming King follows the new JIS standard and not some proprietary rating of their own, should have grit particles ranging from 8.7 micron to 10.3 micron since the new JIS standard says that 1200 grit is an average of 9.5 micron with an acceptable variance factor of 0.8 micron.

Personally, I have several hones that I will never use on a razor, but since I have a terminal case of HAD I don't see this as a problem. The bottom line as I see it is that if you want to be safe, go with the Nortons and the experience behind them and if you want to live a bit dangerously then try the Henckles and give them a shot. The worse thing that could happen is that they suck worse than a Zeepk and you have to sell them on Epray to someone that just wants to sharpen the h#%@ out of their kitchen knives.

I say go for it reqardless of what grit it really is!


BTW, Olivia.....if you use a different list of grit comparisons, I would be THRILLED to see it!

BTW, here's my most recent list...

Let me know if anyone finds any discrepancies or anything they would like to have added!

Oh that is very good!
Christopher, I'll try to compile the things I have.
Its on paper (from my brother's school books) so it might take a little.
Maybe we can add that to yours or vice versa.

Olivia that was the table I was referring to. JIS 4000 is the same as Norton 8k. Hmmm. I'm gonna call Henckels and find out.

Khaos that cannot be.
JIS is always the higher number.

Look at the table!

Ok, I've seen it now.
Why on earth do they not label them in any of the standard grades?
According to that table, the Norton 8000 is equivalent to a F1200!

Well anyway, the guy who wrote that review said that Henckels labels them in JIS, so they would be finer than a Norton then.

Norton claims they are a J8000, however, there is an old and a new JIS rating method. So worst comes to worst, they're the same or better. I am beginning to suspect most knife hones are in JIS (old or new) because if you think about it, F2000 is already less than a micron, F8000 would be better than CrO!

Actually Khaos, Norton claims their stones are "8000 Grit" not "JIS8000 grit"...

Like I said before almost every manufacturer has a slightly skewed grit rating system. The most you can hope for is that they provide the actual specs that they work from, like the Norton specs I have copied from Norton's lists. Norton does not give their margin of error, but they do at least give you their average micron rating so that you can easily place them in a progression.

....Even if they won't use a standard rating system.....