Thread: Any experience with Suehiro Gokumyo Hones?

I agree with Jimmy, eKretz and Stefan - some of these stones do exhibit expansion/contraction.

My shapton glass stones did it. No point in flattening them after a honing session as next morning they would be out of true again. Oddly, not in the same places though, i.e.: where one was high in the middle one day, it would be high on the sides another day. Sometimes there was a series of low and high patches.

My superstones all had this differential movement too. Easier to lap it out on these as the stones are 'soft' in comparison to the glass stones.

My Shapton Pro is always low in the middle - but at least it is consistent. Part of it could be hone wear, but when I lap it and hone a flat thin tool blade in just the middle of the hone - say an inch wide or less, the next day when I lap it all the middle is dished again.

My Choseras do not do this - they stay flat for quite some time and only honing on them dishes them, but the 10k is prone to crazing all over the surface - replaced once, the replacement does the same thing.

My Naniwa 8k Snow White - a very hard stone, somewhat like the SG20k - also exhibits some differential movement which is a chore to lap out because of its hardness.

My SG20k is much like the snow white - differential expansion/contraction, but is harder to lap by a fraction.

The room I use is more or less of a constant heat and humidity, so I guess its a case of YMMV.

Regards,
Neil

How many laps do you normally use on the 20k?

Originally Posted by jkatzman

How many laps do you normally use on the 20k?

For me 30 laps work fine, sometimes I do 50 but very rarely.

I've found that less is more, usually 10-20 laps. Sometimes more, but that's with really, really hard steels.

Just re the G 20, When it arrived 6 months or so ago, I lapped it. It took a good half hour, I put a grid on it with pencil and under running water used an atoma 400, it took serious effort to clean and true this stone. to ultimately check its true I used a steel straight edge and a .o005 feeler gauge. So, with moderate to light use this stone has simply not dished to any detectable degree, so if you true the thing properly it will take plenty of punishment. I have had a question about using it for a one stone hone. IMHO you could do it, by why would you want to? I might be old fashioned, but with this stone I DONT work on the writing side of this stone an never change, When I'd done the truing with the atoma 400, I wanted it perfect so I used some 1600 wet/dry and it was flat and mirror finished ready to go. That's my way with prepping this stone, using it and truing it. Cheers Bobski

Re the number of strokes, with a carbon steel blade 25-30 strokes. Stainless is 40, I have recently had 3 stainless blades (New) and they respond well with a little pressure for the 1st 10 strokes then weight of the blade until ,say, 40 strokes,
thanks guys. Bobski

I bought mine at least a couple of years ago and mine still is not flat! I drew gridlines and lapped away. When I got a sufficient amount of lapped honing surface, I stopped. Gridlines on the corners remained in place as I really saw no point removing so much more of the hone to get access to the entire surface. Even though I regularly refresh the surface, I have yet to remove the gridlines from the corners. This hone is going to last a lot longer than I will.

Regarding number of strokes used, I seem to use fewer than others. I see no point in doing more than 10-15 strokes. This is a very fast hone that removes a lot of steel very quickly.

Many now are going from 8k to 20k,using the Suehiro stone as a panacea for skill, if that is the case, it takes a few more strokes which I proposed. For myself, coming through 8k,10k,15k then 20k. then like Utopian the numbers on the finishing hone reduce. I mention stainless because it was last week and was decidedly hard. The 20k should stay as a polishing finishing stone, not some magical cure, jumping from 8K to 20k, sure you can do it, but 12 strokes after jumping 8k to 20k is a bit of a stretch. Basically the number of strokes, depends on your hones and skill, just MHO. Cheers

Are we changing our bevel setting hone, the new 1k King.

Are we happier now to set bevels with naniwa 4k's or shapton 2k's. I'm starting to mess with things and end up with the Suehiro 10k on and up to the 20k. seems like a change of feel. any thoughts gents? Bobski