Thread: New Shapton M5 12000

Hi,

I recently picked up a Shapton M5 12000 from the Japan Woodworker to add to my base norton hone set 220/1000, 4000/8000.

I touched up a Christians 4/8, finishing on the 12000 then swaty, strop linen and strop leather.

My shave this morning was BBS. Very comfortable shave.

Anyone here use Shapton's M5 series hones? I see the Pro glass hones mentioned form time to time here.

- Mike

I got to play with JimmyHAD's Shapton Professional Series, but I've never touched an M5. I would guess it is the same material but the cheaper price is due to the thinner layer of actual hone, which is adhered to a ceramic substrate in the same manner as the Glass Stones. It's a very nice cheaper option ($59) for a finishing hone, and a Shapton at that!

Hi,

It was good jumping point for a finer hone.

- Mike

Why not try to shave from the M5 12k but finish on the Swaty?

Hi,

Good question, I'm new to honing. So far I only have shaved with any of the blades I've honed when I thought I was done working through the series of progressions.

I have a 3 more blades to hone. I'll try that and see how it feels before moving to the swaty.

When ordering this hone I bought some .3 micro film to experiment with too. It is supposed to be something like an 18000 grit equal or there abouts. Also, I need to get a paddle or something nice and flat to stick it to. I saw in some the videos that marble can work well to stick the film on.

- Mike

0.3micron paper won´t fit into normal git ratings. Ie. it is not 18.000 or equal to.

0.3µm is as low as it gets, there is no synthetic stone this fine.
So the only thing you can be sure of is that it will cut finer than most if not any stone you come across.
So technically it is not near 18.000 but much like 60.000 or 100.000...
But that´s just speculation and won´t necessarily mean better shaves.
But you should definitely experiment with it

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

Why not try to shave from the M5 12k but finish on the Swaty?

Hi,

Today I was working my hones. I put an edge on a Turners today. I worked my progression from 1000 to 4000 to 8000 to 12000 I stropped on linen between. I was having trouble getting the edge faces to meet so I put 1 piece of tape on both sides. That helped.

So I tested and shaved a little from the 12000. It was very interesting. The thumb pad test felt sticky, like there were barbs on the edge. It shaved fine. A little scratchy. After 5 passes on the swaty it really smoothed edge. The bard like feel was gone and the edge felt slick on the thumb pad.

Here are some images from the 8000 and from the 12000 and Swaty

- mike

Tha swaty edge really looks nice! Seems like you got yourself a really nice swaty there