Thread: ** Urgent ** Shapton 16000 Glass Series Stone Info

Ah well. At least you know you're getting great quality and Randy Tuttle had some reservations about diamond abrasive hones, so you may have got the right one afterall. Let us know how it works out.

I've had some experience using diamond hones; on knives though, not razors. I find they work well, but to finish I do prefer some sort of stone. I find the hones work very fast on the steel, which isn't that surprising as diamond is one of the hardest known substances. However, all the diamond hones I've used had the diamond grit impregnated in some sort of steel (some nickel alloy I think). So I'm curious if having them in glass would make much of a difference.

Basically this is based on a theory (Randy, correct me if I misunderstood you), not hard fact but diamond particles create a certain shape of the grooves that isn't too comfortable to shave with. They are ok to bring the blade up to 8k fineness but for final finishing, you want to use another material.

You got it right! Just remember that this is only speculation on my part and can probably never be proven.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Basically this is based on a theory (Randy, correct me if I misunderstood you), not hard fact but diamond particles create a certain shape of the grooves that isn't too comfortable to shave with. They are ok to bring the blade up to 8k fineness but for final finishing, you want to use another material.

That's why I called it a theory. I remembered that part of our convo. But aren't some strop pastes made with diamond abrasive particles?

I believe so. Tony's lists the amplex diamond compounds on his site, which is what I assume he put on my paddle. Works great!

I looked it up on cs last night. Randy, do you use those pastes or pastes with different abrasive particles?

Originally Posted by tom tong

The Shapton 16K, to me, is only a very tiny bit finer than the Norton 8K.

That's strange. The way the Japanese rate their grit, the 8K is equivalent to 4K in sandpaper. The Shapton's are rated by mesh, which means the 16K is like 16K sandpaper, which makes the grit of the Norton 8K four times as large. In other words, this should be rated 32K by Norton's system.

I just ordered one and I'll see for myself. This should be finer than a 1 micron paste.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Basically this is based on a theory (Randy, correct me if I misunderstood you), not hard fact but diamond particles create a certain shape of the grooves that isn't too comfortable to shave with. They are ok to bring the blade up to 8k fineness but for final finishing, you want to use another material.

Although this may be true for the old diamond hones, which only went up to 1200, I'm sceptical about this for 2 reasons.

First, the scratch line of an 8K diamond hone is 1.8 microns, half the width of the Norton 8K (like a Norton 16K). I doubt you could feel something that fine. Second, many pastes use diamond, and I've always found that a 1 micron paste produces a noticeably finer edge than the Norton 8K (over 3 microns).

I ordered one of the 16K GlassStones, and we shall see. The particles are .9 micron. That fills a lot of the gap before my .5 micron paste.

Be sure to let us know how it performs I don't have any more imminent hone purchase plans; but sure am interested regardless.