Because I like to hear the opinion of others before buying new stones,
I would like to give you my impressions on the new Shapton GS High Carbon
to make your choice easyer
Shapton Glass Stone
High Carbon
(aka. jp. Version, grey, extreme polish, new Glass Stones)
http://lesslemming.le.ohost.de/Messe...n/DSCF1514.JPG
As you may or may not know I cherish a good, dark and deep scratch free polish. You may not care for it, but I love it. But I care for a smooth shave, as well
Living in germany I had a hard time getting any Shapton Glasstones at all. The only one to carry these is Dick.biz. So I ordered what I believed was the regular white 8k. To my surprise the stone I was delivered was grey O_O
A quick search showed the 50803 seems in fact to be the 8k version of the grey shapton glasstones.
Me likey.
I was so impressed with the 8k, I bought the whole set (4k, 6k, 8k)
http://lesslemming.le.ohost.de/Messe...n/DSCF1515.JPG
http://lesslemming.le.ohost.de/Messe...n/DSCF1519.JPG
The Shapton HC are very consistent in feedback and result. They feel not slick and glass-like at all. You get a sensational feedback from them.
They may be compared to the Naniwa Super in terms of feedback, but without feeling (that slight bit) rubbery.
Surface of a shapton grey 4k
Surface of a shapton grey 4k #2
Unfortunately all three of them lack cutting power.
They are quite quick at removing scratch marks from the previous stones but unfortunately don´t mix well with other stones
as other stones tend to scratch a bevel more for their respective grit,
than the Shaptons HC do.
In fact the Shapton HC polish for their grit an an extremely high level.
You can get a very good mirror from the HC 4k!
Take a look:
http://lesslemming.le.ohost.de/Messe...n/DSCF1521.JPG
Bevel after HC 4k with a hint of 1µm diamond paste afterwards
http://lesslemming.le.ohost.de/Messe...n/DSCF1524.JPG
Bevel after HC 4k with a hint of 1µm diamond paste afterwards, HHT is silent
The HC 6k leaves almost a perfect polish to the naked eye and loupe. Very nice, just a sgood as other brands 8k stones.
The HC 8k is extremely nice. It polishes to a high luster, deep, 3-D, dark scratch free mirror. Under the microscope there is just the slightest hint of a scratch pattern so shallow, it can be described as scratch free. Only the Superstone 10k improves the polish (only visible through the mic, though).
The HC 8k leaves almost no visible teeth, just a straight line under ~100x.
Shaving after the HC 8k with a hint of 0.5µm diamond or Chromoum oxide is as good as it gets.
Smooth, clean and durable.
I am very impressed with these stones, but wished they had a bevel setter that would conform with the need of a good pre-polish before hitting the rather slow 4k
