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Which stone progression ? Naniwa or Shapton ?

Hi all !
I need your help please : I really hesitate between those 2 stone progressions :

Naniwa Super stones : 1k - 5k - 8k - 12k

Shapton Glass stones HR : 1k - 3k - 6k - 10k

Thanks in advance :)
 
At seven years into honing, I would recommend for the intermediate student the Shapton stone progression, I use the HR's 1K, 4K, 8K, 10K, 16K, 30K.
You really don't need all of these, you could easily get by w/1,4,8, and then your favorite finisher. Perhaps a 12K SS or Gok 20, natural etc.
 
Both are excellent stone makers. You do not need to stick to a single company, despite what other say.

I used to use a 4 stone progression from 4 different makers, Norton, Nubatama, Naniwa & SG, with excellent results.

If you go Naniwa exclusively, I would go Chosera 1k, Pro 3k and 8k Snow White. Then paste or natural finisher. The 3-8k jump is not that large. The 3k will remove 1k stria easily and the Snow White is aggressive and a super polisher.

I do not like the Super Stones, and would stay away from them, even though the 12k edge is super. But the swarf is a pain in the butt, you must lap the stone frequently and especially for your finish laps. The Snow White delivers just about the same performance without all the hassle.

If I was going Shapton for razors, I would go with the G7 Kit. 600, 2500 and 30k.

Shapton’s are aggressive and capable of much larger grit jumps. I routinely go from 140 diamond plate to 500 to 16k Shapton and polish on pasted paddle strop for tools with amazing edges. The hard stones stand up well to tool honing.

You could probably lose the 6k and be just fine with 1.3.10k progression.

Once you set a bevel, the trick is to remove ALL the bevel setting stria, the rest is just polishing. Many synthetics are very aggressive and super polishers.

Don’t think you could go wrong with either progression, except for the 8k. The Snow White or Fuji are way better stones that can do what the 12k super stone does, better.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Hi Julien,

There are a some nice things about the Shapton Glass HR stones.

- They’re fast and save time
- The grit is narrowly distrubuted, they don’t leave deep coarse scratches
- They are designed to go in 3x grit steps and a little more is possible
- They will store away in limited space, get the ventilated Shapton Pro boxes and store two Glass stones per box, which also serves as a stand. Or use the Shapton Field Stone Holder to store up to 4 Glass Stones.

I would go with the 3k and 10k Glass stone and the finisher of choice, and yes you can finish on the 10k HR. If you want to save a little money, go with the 2k HR and a 6k HC, then your finisher of choice. The 8k HC will also substitute for the 10k HR but is a little slower.

The Shapton G7 series is a great option too, very compact. The stones are smaller, cheaper, and thicker. The 0.85u (about 17k) is their recommended razor finisher in the G7 series. The G7 stone base is beautiful.

First image: A set of 4 Glass Stones in the Shapton Field Stone Holder.

Second and third images, the Shapton G7 kit.


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Legion

Staff member
Doubt it. But you could give a quick atoma rub if you want. Synths are almost never flat as a pancake when you get them.
I checked it with a straight edge and thought it was good enough for knives. I'll give it a lap before I try it with a razor.
 
I checked it with a straight edge and thought it was good enough for knives. I'll give it a lap before I try it with a razor.

Because they're white, and relatively hard - SG stones will show very clearly any low areas when you use them. You'll see what I mean, but basically the swarf makes it very easy to tell places where the stone isn't in contact with metal.
 

Legion

Staff member
Yes, lap and flatten the Glass Stones before use. They have a ‘skin’ on them that really should be removed and they’re not perfectly flat. Water will bead up on a new one, image below.

View attachment 1491417
Yeah, it did that a bit. Using it with a knife seemed to knock that off, and the water didn't displace as much after a while. I'll give it an Atoma massage tomorrow.
 
i just paid for the s1 5k 8k and 12k naniwa specialty/super stones. ive been honing for almost a year now and i usually use a naniwa1k trad then a king 6k and then vermont green slate. whats the curve like? should i berable to get a great edge on my new progression with my straight or am i gonna need to try a few times before i get it right. i understand the basics and im learning on when a razor is done on a stone. ie swarf, stucktion, undercut. im looking for a next step up in my edges in general. do you think this progression will make that easier?
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Most folks, including me, would probably say that your Naniwa progression will be easier to use than your old progresson. The Naniwa 12k will likely be better than your green slate, but slates are natural and it would depend on the specific green slate that you have.

Honing is 100% skill until you reach the final finisher, then the finisher might make 5% difference depending on your beard, skin, face feel preference, etc.
 
Shapton stones seem to be more forgiving in terms of larger grit jumps than Naniwa stones IMO.
I primarily use the Super Stones and I have every grit from 1K up to 12K. I find that I can’t skip grit options as much with the Super Stones for some reason.
 
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