Thread: Two Shapton 8000 Glass Options?

First off, even though some folk would like to see more options in new stones, my personal belief is that the bevels set with Nortons, Shaptons and others leave nothing to be desired or for anyone to complain about. Due to the regularity and quality of the particles, if the honer is capable, are leaving edges sharper than anytime in history.
I had an interesting conversation with Harrelson Stanley, who many of you may know already(A big time Shapton Dude for those who don't) and he gave me some information on the glass stones I was unaware of. In our conversation, I told him my some concers I had with the 16000 glass stone, and how while it was great on some A2 steels, I thought it was leaving intermitant deep scratches on razors for it's grit.( I also asked him if I won a 30000 for any reason and just got really quiet) I did not ask him because it functionally was not up to task, but that it did leave stray scratches on the bevel, and I did not believe IMHO that it was cause my abilities getting it to it's potential. Here is what he basically told me(after I had once again asked him if he was sure I did not win the 30000) Harrelson said that the 16000 was not recommended for razors as it was indeed designed for modern steels e.g. A2 and others. That the 16000 was too aggressive for the old carbon steels but the progression should leave out the 16000 all together, even if honing up to 30000. He recommended the Japanese version (glass not pro series, nothing to do with pro series at all) of the 8000 was softer and that was a much better option for razors specifically.
He told me that this was a greyish stone not white, and a softer version of it's American cousin and much gentler. That the scratch pattern more shallow, and you can judge for yourself on that as I will try to leave the link to the PDF from the Japanese Shapton Website. Just click on the first topic the whole thing is in Japanese but it's got some electron micro pics that you can make sense out of. And notice there are 2 different 8000 grits on there and by part # you can figure out which one is which.
Remember once you get on their website, you have to click on the first topic, you will know if you got the right one cause it will be a PDF download. To see it better, you will have to pump up the size or you will suffer eye strain. He said the 8000 made for the razors(Japanese grey colored version, leaves a scratch depth mch lower. He almost went as far as to say the this 8000 version works better in terms of scratch depth than the 16000. i.e the Japanese 8000 leaves a finer finish on razors than their 16000.
How far after the 8000 anyone wants to go is all up to style and taste and ability. What did make sense finaly, was why on some literature I read on dealing with Shaptons, that the 16000 was for sure not recommended for razors. Sorry if you all knew about this already, but I di not find it in search.
Michael
(remember after website top of page 1rst topic PDF download)

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