Shapton Glass Seven Series Stones

[Steve56]

Here’s a mini review and comments for the 0.44 7 Series.

I got mine in and lapped it to worn 1500 grit w/d.

First up was a worn Diamond Hayashi that I frequently use as a test razor. It takes a fine edge and needless to say, the steel is very good. The Hayashi took a very good but not great edge. It shaved as well as a jnat, but was not as smooth, but then almost nothing is that is that sharp. There’s a regular Glass Stone HR in the image for size comparison.

I was re-honing a Bruno Blades Alien, so why not? It’s O2 steel I believe, and I don’t know anything about the hardness or tempering. It would not take the edge. It looked good off the stone, but after stropping there were bright linear places on the edge that would not pass HHT, those places would cut the hair halfway and leave a hanging end. I did this twice. Next, out of curiosity, I tried the Suehiro Gokumyo 20k, another super fine synth that I like a lot. It wouldn’t take that edge either, same results. So I did a superfast kiita and finished on a hard jnat with thin slurry. That worked, so I tried another jnat with thin slurry and it took that edge too.

Next up, I re-finished the Hayashi with a jnat edge, and honed up a Gold Dollar 208 test razor to the 0.44. The Gold Dollar took the edge. I shaved with them side by side this morning, the Hayashi jnat edge is smoother than the 0.44 edge, and the Gold Dollar shaved about like the Hayashi with the 0.44 edge. They both shaved extremely well, but the jnat edges were always noticeably smoother. And honing with jnat slurry almost never produces an unstable edge, if it does, heavier slurry almost always improves or fixes the issue.

One thing of note is that I used a normal 2x20 circles and ellipses followed by 40 linear strokes, flipping the blade each time. Super light pressure BTW. Both the Shapton Glass and Gok 20k are extremely fast stones, and if too many strokes makes an unstable edge on some razors, that’s what I was kind of looking for - and what I saw. So yes, you might want to limit the number of strokes with stones this fine and this fast, though some razors like the Hayashi and Gold Dollar did just fine with a high stroke count.

Lessons learned, you need to try razors on the 0.44/Gok 20k before you assume they’ll hone up well. Other folks see the same thing with high grit synths. And the second lesson is that newer razors may not fare any better than older ones, and price probably doesn’t make a difference in how a razor takes an edge from one of these super fine stones.

 

[buca3152]

Jnat slurry is like love juice for steel. Never had issues with my sg20k though either. But I was hesitant a long time ago on this 30 k. Heard stories of chipping and inconsistent results. Seems that is the case here.

 

[Steve56]

Ha, love juice for steel... I tried the Gok 20k because it’s listed as 0.5u while the regular 30k is 0.49u, and I wanted to see if the binder made a difference - it didn’t. My guess is that it isn’t as much stone dependent as it is razor dependent, though obviously I do not have much data - yet.

 

[buca3152]

What's with the gds that they perform well with just about anything? Superior steel in those recycled American refrigerators? Lol.

 

[Steve56]

You mean they recycled them? Lol. Could be random chance. I’m fairly certain that they didn’t design the $3 model 66 to be honed on a 30K+ Shapton Glass.

 

[sir_mike]

Good to know! Thanks for the review!

 

[kelbro]

One thing to keep in mind is that SG stones have a history of 'less is more'. My SG 16K always performed its best at between 15 and 25 laps. Any more than that and the edge would degrade.

You might try backing off to just a few X-stroke laps and test shave.

 

[buca3152]

Sounds like a PITA hone. Nani 12, suehiro 10,15,20 and chosera 10k I've done hundreds of laps on various steels just to see and never had an issue with edge degradation. The talk years ago was the same about the higher grit shaptons And for that reason I never bought them. And suehiro 20k is more or less the same size abrasive as the 30k. 1/2 micron compared to .49? Close enough! Lol.

 

[Gamma]

I have the .44µm GS7. Interesting stone. Remember, Shapton did not recommend the 16k or the 30k GS for razor honing, the highest grit in that series for razor work was the 19k. With these 7 stones though, I think they upped the technology a bit. I think the 30k GS was .49 µm, so, theoretically, the .44µm GS7 is called out as being a bit finer, so there's that to factor in. I seem to feel the GS7 .44µm stone is less prone to creating edge issues than the 30k GS, but that's based on memory.

 

[Steve56]

 

[Lord Fatboy]

"This is a .44 Shapton... and at this range it'll slice your beard clean off"

If I had the cash, I would give the .44 a go to see how it compares with the 0.3u lapping film.

 

[Gamma]

Remember, Shapton did not recommend the 16k or the 30k GS for razor honing, the highest grit in that series for razor work was the 10k.

Stupid typo.... 10k, not 19k. I hate that we can't edit after 5 minutes.

 

[buca3152]

Updates? Buy? Sell? Hold?

 

[kelbro]

I'm liking my .44

 

[SliceOfLife]

If I'm reading that correctly, the author seems to suggest 2k, 10k and 30k Glass stones as the ideal progression for Kami's?

 

[David]

I'm liking my .44

It’s a nice little stone for sure.

I did a few razors on these and enjoyed the shaves. I’d still rather finish on naturals but have really enjoyed these lower grit stones.

I paired them all together with some double sided tape which makes it a little taller in the hand for hand honing and gives you more clearance if using on a bench. If you’re a knife or tool user the 25/11.5 micron combo is a must have and will turn out very nice edges on EDC’s, kitchen knives, or chisels in just minutes. Over all I really enjoy using these little stones and I’m happy with the purchase.

 

[Steve56]

+1 David on the naturals - they’re still smoother.

And thanks for the 2-sided tape idea!

But you will have to mark the sides

I’m going to have to order the 500.... the only reason that I did not is that I have the full size, double-thick HR!

 

[6Cuda6]

+1 David on the naturals - they’re still smoother.

And thanks for the 2-sided tape idea!

But you will have to mark the sides

I’m going to have to order the 500.... the only reason that I did not is that I have the full size, double-thick HR!

If your talking thr 500GS dont bother...i have it and the 1000GS i think is better.

Now the guy i got them from swore the 500 was the best thing ever for his carving tools though so YMMV.

 

[Gamma]

The 500x GS is good for corrective work on razors, not so great for 'typical' bevel setting. Work on the following stone is signivicant, due to how aggressive it is. For razors, I"d follow with the 1.5k Pro or 1k, GS. The 2k Shaptons are ok too but take too long. The 500x is also a good starting point for cutlery, I just used one to rework the geometry on a Joker, did a great job and left a plausible edge. It handles pressure ok too, where the 2k Shap Pro did not.

I will usually grab a 5k fo set a bevel on a Kami but I might be bold and use something coarser for a few passes to get things sorted out. Generally, where real bevel setting is concerned, not just a tune-up that can be done on a 5k, but one where the job requires the removal of a lot of material, I would go 1k-ish usually, and lower on occastion. That, for me, is how I regard a real bevel setter. People used to call the Norton 4k a bevel setter - I never did though. It's all perspective and the task at hand I guess but for the sake of conversation I do not see a 5k stone as a bevel setter. But for a traditional Kamisori, the tide shfts because you have to pull back the soft steel enough but not so much that you wipe the Omote in the process. In the GS series, I'd probably start with the 6k, and follow with 10k, 16k, 30k. I might use a coarser stone to kickstart the bevel-set if I had to.

 

[towliff]

Reviving an old thread here - sorry to bug!!

I've been struggling to achieve high keenness from my coticules using dilution method. So I decided to get some synths to put on a sharp edge then smooth it with the coticule. I decided on the Shapton Seven series due to relatively good reviews and the good stone size and price point. I don't need an 8x3 to hone on.

I contacted Shapton directly through their website to ask what they recommend for straight razor honing. This was their (quick!) response.



Dear Mr. James Towle,

Thank you for your inquiry.

If you use G7 (GlassStone Seven) series for sharpening straight razors, The combination below is recommended.

70302/G7 6.7micron
70103/G7 3.0micron
70503/G7 2.0micron
70903/G7 0.85micron

Hope this will help you well.

Best regards,

SHAPTON Co., Ltd.


Taking this advice, I purchased the above stones from Dictum.com. On this website, they quote these grits as 2K, 4K, 6K & 10K. Very excited to see what I can do with these

I decided not to get one of those sets which comes with a stone holder and lapping plate as they are seriously expensive for what they are! I have a DMT I use for lapping which will do the job.

Looking forward to trying these out.