Thread: American vs. Japanese Grit numbers

Just a bit of interjection here...

There is no science here, there is a ton of information that doesn't mean a darn thing UNTIL steel meets stone...

The type of grit, the binder, the release rate of the grit, the actual shape of the grit all come into play here... So take ALL the grit numbers with a large dose of salt until you try them yourself...

BTW when you add in Natural stones it really takes a huge hit to grit accuracy two different Ch12K's will cut differently...

Some Fun Huh????

And this is why natural hones and barber hones do not have a grit rating--because it doesn't tell the whole story and they don't compare.

Have I mentioned the Chinese Hone is not 12K?

Ron on a Roll gotta love it man....

Originally Posted by Utopian

Have I mentioned the Chinese Hone is not 12K?

PHIG FTW. I'm bringin PHIGgy back... yea.

Originally Posted by Utopian

And this is why natural hones and barber hones do not have a grit rating--because it doesn't tell the whole story and they don't compare.

Have I mentioned the Chinese Hone is not 12K?

What do you mean by the Chinese Hone is not 12k? What would you rate it from experience?

Here is just a bit to occupy your time while Ron types more

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...nese-hone.html

Keep in mind this is just 1 natural hone

Originally Posted by Utopian

Have I mentioned the Chinese Hone is not 12K

Mine is.

Originally Posted by airbus001

What do you mean by the Chinese Hone is not 12k?

It means that when the quartz or whatever is the cutting media in that rock crystalized, the sizes are all kinds and nobody sorted them out selecting only the 12000 grit ones. Same is true for every other natural hone, the range of sizes is much larger than any industrial standard.

Originally Posted by airbus001

What would you rate it from experience?

I would rate them as slow cutting hones, some of them being significantly better than others in producing a sharp edge on a straight razor.
The grits in there are anything from about 1000 to 100,000.
How it behaves depends on how much of the big ones and how much of the small ones ended up in the particular piece of rock that you bought.

Originally Posted by gugi

It means that when the quartz or whatever is the cutting media in that rock crystalized, the sizes are all kinds and nobody sorted them out selecting only the 12000 grit ones. Same is true for every other natural hone, the range of sizes is much larger than any industrial standard.


I would rate them as slow cutting hones, some of them being significantly better than others in producing a sharp edge on a straight razor.
The grits in there are anything from about 1000 to 100,000.
How it behaves depends on how much of the big ones and how much of the small ones ended up in the particular piece of rock that you bought.

I repeatedly tried to multi-quote, which I have done in the past, but it did not work. Thus I am going to respond individually.

Gugi's thinking aligns with my own. If you compare my Norton 4k to my other Norton 4k to Gssixgun's 4k to JimmyHad's 4k, you would discover that they are virtually identical. Synthetic hones are made from screened uniform grit with a uniform ratio of abrasive and binder. Natural hones, like the Chinese hone, are ROCKS resulting from eons of geological forces acting on the particular strata of rock from which the hones are mined. Two hones cut less than a foot apart might vary dramatically in their constitution. In other words, if you compare my Chinese hone to my other Chinese hone to Gssixgun's Chinese hone to JimmyHad's Chinese hone, you would discover that they can vary dramatically. Short answer is that natural hones are rocks, and so they cannot be presumed to be identical

Originally Posted by Philadelph

Mine is.

Nope, yours is not 12k.
I'm pretty sure I bought my Boker 1056 from you and you honed that on a Chinese hone and given the quality of shaves I've gotten off of it, I'd rate your particular hone at 17.6! *



*With the caveat that no Chinese hone can actually be assigned a grit rating!