There has been a bit of discussion lately about sharpening stones, interestingly enough, there has been little mention of shapton stones. While it has traditionally been the case that price has been prohibitive, they have introduced enough models to overcome that.
I am specifically interested in the courser blue back pro model as a flattening stone. Curious about how slow they wear? While I have read that ceramic stones are hard to flatten (starrett reference plate used to flatten stone), I like that they can be flattened. It has been suggested that DMT stones while nice, are hit and miss with flatness.
Not interested in sand paper or paste as a flattening method so we can skip any discussions about “why don’t you just…”. Have tried courser water stones but they aren’t worth the abrasive they are made out of.
Replies
I assume you mean diamonds. I prefer...
http://www.eze-lap.com/products.htm
I have a full set of shapton stones, including the 320 grit blue stone. I love the shapton stones but I would not buy the 320 grit stone again -- it wears MUCH too fast. Yes, it cuts fast but it also wears just as fast. In use, I found that I had to flatten the stone with every 2nd blade that I was sharpening. This is only a problem with the coarser stones -- it is not a problem with the 1000 - 8000 grit stones, so those I can recommend highly.
I cannot comment on the DMT stones since I've never owned one. However, many WW'ers use a combo DMT stone to flatten their blades, then finish flattening and polishing them with other methods -- either stones or paper on glass
Edited 6/27/2008 12:06 pm ET by pzaxtl
Edited 6/27/2008 12:07 pm ET by pzaxtl
I have a set of the Professional Shaptons in 1000, 5000, 8000 and the iron flattening plate and powders. The stones are very hard, not like your typical Japanese water stone, they wear like iron and only need a spritz of water to start sharpening. The downside is they are not very easy to flatten, so you never want to let them go too far, before getting them flat again.
I know that some of the coarser grits wear much faster than the 1000/5000/8000's. The stones really seem to excel at the very hard Japanese tool steel and western O1, I fine them kind of average when sharping A2. I hear that was one of reasons Shapton developed the glass stone line..
I have Professional Shaptons 1000/5000/8000/12000 and flatten them with a 10" DMT duosharp Extra Coarse plate. The DMT does a good job with the Shaptons. If I need something coarser than the 1000 Shapton, I use the Coarse side of the DMT.
As far as I am aware, there is no difference in the composition of the Professional andd Glasstones.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Edited 6/27/2008 2:01 pm ET by derekcohen
Derek a quote from a post on the Japanese Woodworking forum by Harrelson Stanley the US importer of Shapton's, commenting on the Shapton Glass Stone series"The ceramic abrasive is very similar to the Pro series. It is clearly different though. Mr. Ishida sent me many different stones over the past year and I tried them and gave him my comments. His engineers have dialed this in to cut the A2 steel. I think the A2 is tougher than most of my Japanese steels. I don't think it can be sharpened to the same level though. The Japanese steels have a "sweetness" the A2 just dosen't have. The GlassStones might be a little more agressive than the Pro series and they are not as grabby. They cut my Japanese steels beautifully as well as the A2. Mr. Ishida has a lot of control over his "mix" but he is very secretive about it, so I don't know the details. I do know that there were many differences in the stones that I tested and it was lots of fun to be envolved the design. The 30,000 is really different from the pro series, it has become a lot more friendly, I can really work it now.Again his bonding material is proprietary but I do know that that was an issue that held us up for some time.We are advertising the material as having 5 mm of abrasive but, if you measure, it will be about 6 mm. I have a 16,000 that I've been using for a year now. It has been worked hard at many shows and demonstrations. It now has less than 1 mm of material left and I'm still using it! (with no cracks) What's more interesting is that it worked down consistently, all four corners measure the same. I have worked down many stones over the years but they are all considerably thiner on one end. This one has come down even to the surface of the glass plate plate. I think this is due to several factors. The consistency of the glass lapping plate, regular turning of the stone and the consistency of my side sharpening technique all impact the wear pattern.I do know that my natural stones are very prone to uneven wear and that's because they have uneven bottoms that sit better one direction than another, they often work better in one direction than the other and they often have bad areas that have to be avoided. My more used natural stones are all kind of like funky wedges!
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peace and good woodworkingHarrelson Stanley"Edited 6/27/2008 2:38 pm ET by BOBABEUIEdited 6/27/2008 2:38 pm ET by BOBABEUI
Edited 6/27/2008 2:40 pm ET by BOBABEUI
Thanks for that update Bob. I have not tried the glass stones, only the Pro series. Fortunately the Pros cut A2 well enough, especially if you are only working secondary bevels. Hopefully I can contunue to avoid the glass stones so that I am not tempted. :)
Regards from Perth
Derek
Well, I ordered a DMT x-course and as I feared the 11 1/2 inch stone had almost .008" dip in it from corner to corner. Looks like I will be ordering the Shapton after all.
Chris
I use the DRLP and the diamond on glass to flattin my shapton stones.I also use them on my norton stones.I have tryed the dmt to flattin with didnt care for the results.The DRLP is expensive.But it does have two sides.And holds stones.I have had mine for about three years now still works fine.I been using the diamond on glass for about six months.Not really any differance between the two both are flat.Hope this helps.
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