Shapton Pro 1K First Impressions

[Gamma]

I picked up a Shapton 1k this week.
It's been a while since I had a 'new' 1k anything.

I love the 1k C - but the only path to knowledge is through experience and I had heard the Shapton Pro was awesome.

It's not awesome but it is a decent and very functional stone.

It's a good bit more coarse than the 1K C - I'd guesstimate that it's in the same zone as the 800x C.
That's not a bad thing - but I don't like to drop that low in grit unless I have to.
It just so happens that I need to hone up a Wedge with a significant amount of chips and pitting - there's a fair amount of steel to remove before I can get a good bevel set, so this experiment is working out ok.

The Shapton is a bit thirsty - I didn't want to soak it for the first use so I kept spraying it. After a while it settled down and I only had to sprtiz it here/there.
I cleared it off and left it alone for 30 minutes or so - and I only needed a few spritzes to get back into it.

I'm impressed with it's speed, but not it's consistency. I've seen more consistent scratch patterns.
All in all - It's a decent stone - It's priced well.
The size is fine but I prefer longer and thicker hones.

Bottom line - this stone is OK and all, but I'll probably won't be keeping it.

 

[global_dev]

I picked up a Shapton 1k this week.

The size is fine but I prefer longer and thicker hones.
.

i thought the thin -ness was ok due to the "hardness" and less dishing.. you aren't finding that or you just like the thicker stone feel.

 

[ANeat]

I really like the Shapton glass stones, splash and go. Still looking at getting a "natural" solution for something in the 1k area

 

[Gamma]

The GS stones seemed way too thin for my tastes. This Pro stone isn't that thin. It doesnt seem to be all that hard, plus I like to use the side of a synth sometimes and it's a bit tedious on the Pro.

 

[ANeat]

The "thin-ness" of the glass stones never bothered me. It sits in a holder, (one of those universal holders) that gets it up high enough to suit me

 

[Gamma]

That's not my issue - I could put it on a 4x4 if I was worried about height.
I have holders, rubber blocks, etc - I can put any stone at any height I need to.

The thin-ness and glass mount preclude me from using the sides, and there's less stone than there is with the Pro; so I'll have to replace it even faster.

 

[ANeat]

Way thicker than film

 

[Gamma]

True...

 

[Seraphim]

I heard that!

 

[mainaman]

I find the 1k Pro top be really bad stone, feels rather gritty and scratchy.
Sigma Pwer stones are something to give a try , the 400 is a fantastic extremely fast stone, and the 1k Hard version is a very good option as well.

 

[Gamma]

I doesn't feel gritty and scratchy - but it's not a 1k like the Chosera 1k either.
It's more like the 800x C - but not quite as smooth as that either.
But definitely not gritty/scratchy.
It's a good stone - just not my favorite.

I used the 1k Pro quite a bit more after my inititial post above - I also lapped it a few more times.
Not a full lapping with a grid, just a minute or so each time. What I think is that stone needed a bit of extra landscaping to get to the 'good' stuff.

Looking at the scratch pattern on this wedge now - it's a lot better than it was when I was first working with the Shapton.
It's consisistent across the bevel so I'm way happier about this now.
The stone is hard - but not like I was expecting. There is enough give when it's soaked so it's not like honing on granite or marble.
That's a big plus - I was a little concerned about that. I had read that these were the hardest stones and maybe they are in some regard.
It doesn't 'feel' any harder than the Chosera though.
It's way harder than a Norton or a Super Stone - which is good.
It dries out a lot faster than the King red brick 1k too - also a good thing.
Before I did the extra lapping the feedback was ok, but kind of dry feeling. Now - it's a lot smoother but it's still alive; the tactile part of using this stone is very good.


As I kept using it I started liking it more.
Still -I prefer the Chosera 800x and the 1k to this Shapton, but I'm feeling better about owning it now.
I'm going to guess that the 1500x Pro stone would be a better choice as a go-to bevel setter if someone was going to have one stone for that job.
But that's just a guess and an assumption.
If someone is going to be doing lots of restorations - this would be a good choice for cutting through micro-pitted swiss-cheese steel.
That's what I'm doing now - it's working fine for that. I have about 30 minutes of that stage left to do today; I'm going to resoak the Pro and finish with it.
Then I'll use the 1k C to finesse it to where I like it before moving forward. Originally - I was going to jump to the 3k but after looking at the scratch pattern this morning, I think I'd be better off on the 1k.

 

[Proinsias]

I recall honed saying the 1.5K Shapton was more suited to bevel setting.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/286514-Ordered-a-Chosera-1K?p=4033440#post4033440

 

[Gamma]

I recall lots of people saying lots of things about lots of stones, including that thread you linked to.

Take Stefan's post above - he says the 1k is scratchy and gritty - I don't feel that way at all.

I'm the kind of person that prefers first hand experience over parroting what I read on the internet.

 

[Bayamontate]

Of the Shaptons I dig the GS 500 which, IMO, feels more like a 1K and leaves very workable scratches. The PS is sort of hard to read and reacts very differently to different steels. With the PS 1K I had microchipping issues on Swedish steel but none with German or Japanese steel. It did leave deep scratches on Sheffields. The feedback takes getting used to as well.

 

[Gamma]

Never tried a Glass Stone - was going to get the 16k at one point though. I could never get clarity on which of two types of GS would be the way to go.


Just finished this Sheffield on the 1k Shapton - I soaked the stone for about 20 minutes and that made a huge difference in the action.
Way smoother and the feedback and cutting action was still on-point.
I've only done this one blade so far but it did a damn fine job of cutting off all the bad steel.

The one thing a DMT has - it that it doesn't give under pressure and you can cut into steel without having to worry about squishing the stone's surface and deflecting the angle of the bevel.
This Shapton is hard enough to resist a decent amount of pressure - not as well as a DMT but enough to use it with some oomph safely.
Now - I have clean steel across the bevel and a nice scratch pattern. Plus - I don't have any flying gouges running over the Shinogi or bizzaro rogue gouges in the steel like I get from the diamond plate - this is a very good thing.

Jump to the 3k C or the 1k C? No harm in trying the 3k now I guess. If it doesn't fly I'll just go to the 1k.

 

[Gamma]

Done playing with synths and this blade now.
The jump to 3k was possible, but going to 1k was best.
Following the 1k C, was the: 3k C, 6k Nubatama Ume, 10k Nubatama Bamboo.

Bevel looks good - not perfect though. The 10k polished up the face very well but under some magnification, I can still see some left-behind underlying scratches.
That wasn't unexpected, I really leaned on this blade to get it cleaned up.

Honestly - I'm fairly certain that I could strop and shave with it just fine. I don't subscribe to perfectly mirrored bevels being indicative of anything I really care about.

Instead though - I'll probably take this blade to a Botan Toishi, and progressing on Jnats to do the real finishing work.

 

[mainaman]

I recall lots of people saying lots of things about lots of stones, including that thread you linked to.

Take Stefan's post above - he says the 1k is scratchy and gritty - I don't feel that way at all.

I'm the kind of person that prefers first hand experience over parroting what I read on the internet.

I might have to lap mine a few more times and see how it is, but it definitely felt gritty to me, may be I did not go past the rough crust to the actual useful grit. I'll give it a try again.
I use the 2/5/8k Pros in my progression and like them a lot, they are rather fast cutters, and leave very nice scratch pattern. Price is also very good.

 

[Ecl]

It seems to me that the Nubatama 10K is coarser than the Naniwa SW 8K, and I found I was spending a lot of time on the Naniwa SS 10K to get rid of the scratches. I demoted my Nub from the razor pile to the knife pile, where it's just about to get kicked off the shelf when the Ume 2K brick comes next week. I don't really need a 10K in the knife pile, not being a sushi chef.

Considering the price, I should probably do some more thorough research on the Nub 10K, though.

 

[Gamma]

I don't use synthetics to finish, just to refine the bevel-set stages on restorations.
Any razor that's been done once here never sees a synthetic again unless I decide to totally redo it for some reason.

I sold the SW and 10K C last year - haven't looked back at the 10k but I do miss using the SW.

I figured the Nub 10k was a bit behind the Snow White - the 6k Ume is behind the 5k C.
And that's why It fits into my overall scheme. I wanted the next actual step after the 6k Ume.
The 8k Nub is probably not enough of a jump so the 10k seemed like a logical choice.

Nice stone - weird density though. Seems light for its size. Good thickness and it seemed to have shaped up the work from the 6k perfectly.
I soaked it - didn't seem to need that though. It might be useful as a start point for touching up a blade but I'll have to wait to try that.

 

[rickboone1]

The DMT 1200 is the best ever. So I hear. I don't have one. I set my bevels in the driveway.