Shapton Pro 1500 Waterstone - First Impressions

[Gamma]

The Shapton Pro 1500 should get more love on this board.
This is a good stone.
The price is wallet-friendly and the performance is very good.

However - it will not replace the 1k C here in my house.
I'm not going to make subjective comparisons between the two - suffice to say I prefer the Chosera.

Having said that;

The SP 1500 has an odd subtle smell when lapping. Sorta like a dirty ashtray.
There is visible discoloration in the stone when wet, like staining in a way. Not a horrible thing but probably indicative of something - just not sure what.
The staining doesn't make me happy - but I can live with it since it seems to have zero impact on anything.
It cuts well and it cuts evenly - I don't see any rogue scratches - the scratch pattern is very even.
The hardness is good - it does not seem like any amount of soaking will cause it to get spongy.
It's fast enough to set a bevel but I don't think I'd want to use it for chip removal or heavy geometry correction. The 800x SP would do fine there.
The top did seem to glaze under 320x w/d during lapping so I went back to 200x and it was fine.

I put a couple of beater blades on it for about 5 minutes each and the results were good. Both of those razors will need significantly more work to get the bevel right but I can see where the SP 1500 cut into fresh steel well enough to know that the rest of the process would go smoothly and the results would be fine.

Relatively Objective Comparison to the 1k C;

Scratch pattern seems to be more prononced than one from the 1k C; 15x loupe, Sheffield steel.
Hard to say with pure objectivity - but I believe the Chosera cuts faster.
This is a smaller, thinner and lighter stone, it's density suggests that it's more brittle.
I can lean on the blade a bit more with the SP - could be a useful option at times.
Color is a sedate blue - swarf stands out less on the SP, but this is just a fussy observation.
Feedback is sorta inert - not telling at all. This seems odd to me because the stone feels so stiff.

All in all - I prefer the SP 1500 over the Norton, King and Naniwa SS 1k options. Way more.
If there was no Chosera 1k - I'd probably be using this stone exclusively.

 

[jeness]

Thanks for the review, I liked the 2k pro a lot, I can imagine I would like the 1,5k too.

 

[jpcwon]

Interesting, thanks for the review Gamma!! I often wondered if there was a reasonable option between a Naniwa SS 1k (which I sold) and a Chos. 1k, and this looks like it could be it. I am happy with my Chosera 1k at the moment, but it's nice to know there are options out there...

 

[Lando]

Very nice.
Have you ever tried Shapton glass 1K? I really like mine as a bevel setter. Some might complain about the thinness, but I prefer the reduced weight compared to the bulk of many synthetic waterstones.

 

[Gamma]

I've not tried any of the GS series. Trying the SP stones was mostly an informational type of lark really; something I had to get out of my system.
I'll probably be selling them soon - I like the Chosera 1k better. I may try a Nub 1k or a Bester 1200 someday.
The GS series don't intrigue me much - I'm sure they're good stones and all but I like to use the side of the stone sometimes and the GS series doesn't allow that.

 

[Ecl]

I've not tried any of the GS series. Trying the SP stones was mostly an informational type of lark really; something I had to get out of my system.
I'll probably be selling them soon - I like the Chosera 1k better. I may try a Nub 1k or a Bester 1200 someday.
The GS series don't intrigue me much - I'm sure they're good stones and all but I like to use the side of the stone sometimes and the GS series doesn't allow that.

I have the white Nub 1K Bamboo and the Nub 1K Plum (the extra-hard variant of the speckled stones) as well as the Bester 1200 (I got unbelievably lucky on ebay for this one). They're all basically the same stone, although the Plum has different dimensions and a speckled color scheme. I get the feeling that all three rolled off the same production line. Maybe the 1200 is a little finer, but it's very hard to tell.

They're all very good, if used properly. They're also so hard they're pretty much immune to gouging, dishing, nuclear detonations or other abuse.

I got the Bam 1K first, and made the mistake of believing that it was really a splash-and-go stone. Wrong. The thing sucked up all the water I sprayed on it as well as the swarf. Right down into the pores. The performance also wasn't anything to write home about. It turns out that these stones need to be soaked for 45 minutes or more, and then they show their real potential.

Any of these three stones is a capable bevel-setter, but they're not significantly better or worse than the Chosera. Once they're soaked, they have a very pleasant feel to them, whether with razor or knife. And there's no question that they get the job done. It's just not worth paying the $125 Nubatama price for what is essentially a $50 Bester stone.

I use the Bam 1K and the Bester on kitchen knives, where they serve well, and use the Plum 1K as a razor bevel-setter whenever I'm organized enough to remember to presoak it. Otherwise, I set bevels with the Chosera 1K.

 

[Gamma]

Interesting info, ty.