Shapton Glass Seven Series Stones

[towliff]

OMG. I regret not purchasing these sooner!

I lapped these flat with my worn DMT course 8x3". I think this is 45um grit. It didn't take long to do.

The size of these shapton 7 stones is perfect for working a straight razor because they cut so easily.

I started with the 6.7um, moving up through 3, 2 and 0.85um. Then finished on water on my coticule. I am certain I haven't maxed out the sharpness yet as the water on the coticule undercut extremely well in some sections of the blade (It undercut across the whole blade well, but some parts just seemed much better).

The feedback of the stones is really nice and consistent too which I think is great.

Come to the shave and it is definitely the sharpest I have ever got a straight razor to be. Because I put the coticule finish on, it was also extremely smooth. I did a 3 pass shave and went against the grain on the top lip up to nose. There was almost no burn at all with the alum block afterwards.

Suffice to say, I am extremely impressed with the Shapton Seven glass stones (SSGS). They make sharpening an absolute joy, and very quick. Instead of spending hours and hours trying to dilute the coticule slurry and still ending up with subpar keenness, a few minutes on each SSGS followed by 10 mins on the coticule yielded the best edge I have ever achieved. I also know there is more to get so bring it on!

Honestly, I don't know what else could be done with these stones to improve them.

 

[Steve56]

They are nice.

 

[David]

I wish they offered the 220 in the 7 series.

 

[towliff]

Yeah they go down to 25um 500 grit. Is that not low enough for you David?

 

[David]

Yeah they go down to 25um 500 grit. Is that not low enough for you David?

The 500 is plenty low enough for razors, but the 220 would be nice for knives and tools.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Have to say that I've been returning to this thread over the past few weeks. As I like smaller hones and stones, I finally took the bait and ordered the 6.70 > 3.00 > 2.00 > 0.85 micron progression as recommended by Dictum. Honed with the progression last night to remove some microchips from a razor that was feeling "crisp," stropped on plain leather and shaved with it tonight. Not a bad shave at all. Not as smooth as off a natural finisher, but a perfectly functional close shave. A better lather might have helped too (I used TOBS sandalwood, which I find a bit dry and airy, in wanting to finish off the tube). Returned to a narrow coticule afterwards to see if that helps to smooth things in shrouding the reasonably sharp edge for the next shave (hopefully the last with the TOBS cream).

The G7 series felt very good in honing and the format was very comfortable to use hand-held with an outstretched palm (gripping these from side to side with the fingers is likely to result in a serious cut as the fingertips have a tendency to rise above the honing surface that way). Hard for me to really tell by sight when to end and move on to the next hone. I mostly went by feel, using long sweeping X-strokes only. In dulling the edge on the lip of a glass (something I rarely do) the edge was gripping my fingernail very quickly after hitting the 6.70 micron hone. Subsequent hones had a tendency to feel rough at the start before settling into an easier, smooth feel. That for me was the signal to hone just a little bit more before moving on.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Have to say that I've been returning to this thread over the past few weeks. As I like smaller hones and stones, I finally took the bait and ordered the 6.70 > 3.00 > 2.00 > 0.85 micron progression as recommended by Dictum. Honed with the progression last night to remove some microchips from a razor that was feeling "crisp," stropped on plain leather and shaved with it tonight. Not a bad shave at all. Not as smooth as off a natural finisher, but a perfectly functional close shave. A better lather might have helped too (I used TOBS sandalwood, which I find a bit dry and airy, in wanting to finish off the tube). Returned to a narrow coticule afterwards to see if that helps to smooth things in shrouding the reasonably sharp edge for the next shave (hopefully the last with the TOBS cream).

The G7 series felt very good in honing and the format was very comfortable to use hand-held with an outstretched palm (gripping these from side to side with the fingers is likely to result in a serious cut as the fingertips have a tendency to rise above the honing surface that way). Hard for me to really tell by sight when to end and move on to the next hone. I mostly went by feel, using long sweeping X-strokes only. In dulling the edge on the lip of a glass (something I rarely do) the edge was gripping my fingernail very quickly after hitting the 6.70 micron hone. Subsequent hones had a tendency to feel rough at the start before settling into an easier, smooth feel. That for me was the signal to hone just a little bit more before moving on.

Correction: the recommendation comes from Shapton itself, rather than Dictum, via towliff's posts above.

 

[JPO]

OMG. I regret not purchasing these sooner!

I lapped these flat with my worn DMT course 8x3". I think this is 45um grit. It didn't take long to do.

The size of these shapton 7 stones is perfect for working a straight razor because they cut so easily.

I started with the 6.7um, moving up through 3, 2 and 0.85um. Then finished on water on my coticule. I am certain I haven't maxed out the sharpness yet as the water on the coticule undercut extremely well in some sections of the blade (It undercut across the whole blade well, but some parts just seemed much better).

The feedback of the stones is really nice and consistent too which I think is great.

Come to the shave and it is definitely the sharpest I have ever got a straight razor to be. Because I put the coticule finish on, it was also extremely smooth. I did a 3 pass shave and went against the grain on the top lip up to nose. There was almost no burn at all with the alum block afterwards.

Suffice to say, I am extremely impressed with the Shapton Seven glass stones (SSGS). They make sharpening an absolute joy, and very quick. Instead of spending hours and hours trying to dilute the coticule slurry and still ending up with subpar keenness, a few minutes on each SSGS followed by 10 mins on the coticule yielded the best edge I have ever achieved. I also know there is more to get so bring it on!

Honestly, I don't know what else could be done with these stones to improve them.View attachment 1122785

If you do around 4 to 5 strokes on the 0.85 after the coticule. You can get a really nice hybrid edge. Some of the fingerprint from the coticule should still be there.

 

[Steve56]

Fendrihan had the holder set on sale at a really good price recently. The holder is a work of art deco. And it’s labeled ‘Holder’ on each side so if you’re honing drunk, you’ll know what it is ….

 

[Alum of Potash]

Fendrihan had the holder set on sale at a really good price recently. The holder is a work of art deco. And it’s labeled ‘Holder’ on each side so if you’re honing drunk, you’ll know what it is ….

View attachment 1372325

I'm gonna hold out for the flint-glass version. ;-)

 

[towliff]

So I recently expanded my set. For some reason I didn’t purchase the 4um stone. Looks like that might need to be an addition at some point!

I made myself a box to store them safely. £16 for all materials and it fits the set perfectly! It’s a box from the brand ‘really useful box’. I got some foam from hobby craft and lined the box, and added small dividers between the stones

 

[David]

Brilliant!