Thread: Shapton Hones - Glassstones

Originally Posted by Bruno

Interesting. is it sharpeness or smoothness that improves with the Crox?

Smoothness. The edge off the 16K is very keen.The CrOx, at least IMO, really improves the comfort.

That is a nice setup. I currently only have a Livi strop with Chromium on one side. But if I get back into straights all the way, which it looks like is very possible, when I order stones it is going to be Shapton. I know I would want the 4000 8000 and 16000. But then Comes the question of what am I going to lap it with, as the lapping system Shapton sells is quite pricey, I just am not sure. By the way, is there any real need for a 6000 stone for honing up a decent razor? I mean the 4000 can take care of the bevel and the 8000 can polish, add the 16k and some chromium oxide and you are good to go right? That is of course excluding razors that have severe edge damage, warping etc...

6000 imo is unnecessary, since the jump from 4000 to 8000 should be no problem. I'd rather have a 1K for if I need to remove metal to get rid of nicks.

Some people use the DGLP for flattening and love it, but others use the DMTD8C and that works equally well according to the user reports.

After finishing on a coticule for a while now, I decided to order a shapton 16k after reading everything here

I got the the 1k as well for bevel setting and a d8c for lapping. Think I'll stick with my Belgian blue and coticule on the intermediate steps for now.

Btw, craftsman studio has a very nice free shipping deal on the shapton stones.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Interesting. is it sharpeness or smoothness that improves with the Crox?

Originally Posted by Lt.Arclight

Smoothness. The edge off the 16K is very keen.The CrOx, at least IMO, really improves the comfort.

Bruno:

Off the 16K I agree with Lt. Chrome Ox on newspaper (that's how I finish honing most often) seems to take the keen shaving and extremely sharp edge and give it an added level of comfort without compromising sharpness.

On a microscopic level the chrome ox is sharpening or more appropriately smoothing, but I used to think the sharpening ability as we think of sharpening was greater with chrome ox. Then I did an experiment earlier this year where I stropped a razor 700 times over a week period on chrome ox newspaper. No overhone or wire edge and the already keen shaving edge did not get noticeably sharper but did provide buttery smooth shaving for the entire week (100 laps per night after each morning's shave). Maybe I should strop a razor 700 times in one sitting and see if that would change anything.

Chris L