Shapton Pro 1k
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Stockman
Active Member
The SP1000 is a great candidate for "only 1 stone" conversations.
Very easy to use, quick to produce a burr ( if the edge is not too damaged ), and can finish a Kitchen knife to a very acceptable level of shaving sharpness with bite very quickly.
I always have one in my Fridge.
Very easy to use, quick to produce a burr ( if the edge is not too damaged ), and can finish a Kitchen knife to a very acceptable level of shaving sharpness with bite very quickly.
I always have one in my Fridge.
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@1315
The shapton pro 1k is wider scratches, so lower grit, but more shallow partly because it's a harder stone. The cerax 1000 is more narrow and higher grit but slightly deeper since it's a softer stone. Both can glaze though. I think the cerax is faster for me, but I've never used them side by side, only after incompletely used one up.
For honyaki for example, the cerax is better but mine had stray grit problems.
The shapton pro 1k is wider scratches, so lower grit, but more shallow partly because it's a harder stone. The cerax 1000 is more narrow and higher grit but slightly deeper since it's a softer stone. Both can glaze though. I think the cerax is faster for me, but I've never used them side by side, only after incompletely used one up.
For honyaki for example, the cerax is better but mine had stray grit problems.
I’ll do ya an in-depth, side by side comparison of these in the next coupla days.
SG500, SG1K, SP1K, SP1.5k
nice! please do. I really like my SG500 but I would love to see how it compare to these others...
That ought to be interesting.
TBH I can tell you right now, even before my little experiment, that your SG500 is irreplaceable. Except obviously by your next SG500 at some point in the future, when that one runs out
. Everybody should have one!Will be interesting to re-acquaint myself with the SG1k and SP1.5K, neither of which I've used very much, and not for a long time. (Those two stones aren't mine - I've borrowed them from work).
Yeah, should be fun!
I was interested to see you say above that you really liked the SP1.5K. Because generally I tend to agree with your tastes / opinions regarding stones, but the only time I've used the SP1.5 before - I really didn't get along with it.
Any tips for use...? Or things you think it's particularly good for...?
I haven't even tried the others and just traded my SG500 for a double-thick SG500TBH I can tell you right now, even before my little experiment, that your SG500 is irreplaceable. Except obviously by your next SG500 at some point in the future, when that one runs out
Will be interesting to re-acquaint myself with the SG1k and SP1.5K, neither of which I've used very much, and not for a long time. (Those two stones aren't mine - I've borrowed them from work).
. I guess I did it right then lol.actually I used the SP1k on chisels once (Narex A2). worked great, super fast.
tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
Dang did you also pick these up during a stroll through your local forest?
Haha! No the SG500 I had already, the others I found in a railway arch...
We use, and sell, the SPs at the place I work, and then there's another big box of random dirty stones which I decided to clean up yesterday to see what they were. SG1k was in there, along with some other fun stuff; Rozsutec, Natsuya, very nice Tomae (I think) jnat, and one of the most beautiful coticules I've ever seen.
Unfortunately it was very small, but this is a really gorgeous pink coti, with manganese lines and dendrites:
holy sh**t. love these old cotis full of character. too small for knife use?
Not too small for knives, IMO (send it here...)
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Well I'll be. A coticule with renge.
Shhh. It is. I'll make sure to dispose of it correctly. And by "dispose", I mean use it in hand for sharpening.
Long time ago. As I said, to me it was the polisher of the SPs mid grits trio. The 1K the sharpener and 2K a super good stone for deburring, stropping, touching up.Yeah, should be fun!
I was interested to see you say above that you really liked the SP1.5K. Because generally I tend to agree with your tastes / opinions regarding stones, but the only time I've used the SP1.5 before - I really didn't get along with it.
Any tips for use...? Or things you think it's particularly good for...?
All I can tell you is to look at how it dries… A bit like SP320 there in behavior compared to sp1k or 2k, and just likewise the 320 it glazes and is rather thirsty. A short soak don’t do them bad IMO.
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The_Real_Self
Well-Known Member
Why do you not like their 5K? This is one that had my interest particularly.
The_Real_Self
Well-Known Member
Well you learn something new everyday, didn't realize I was storing my sharpening gear incorrectly all this time. What was I thinking not keeping it in the fridge?
It’s hard, no feedback, the edge it gives is mediocre.
Coming from a newbie, but the 5k seems quite a bit different. Very hard and fine. It is not particularly fast or forgiving. I think it feels ok to deburr. Doing stropping strokes on it feels nice and velvety. Edge leading feels OK because it is so hard. Standard sharpening "scrubbing" motion feels strange due to hardness and little feedback. I can't say I dislike it yet but it behaves very differently than other stones I have and it seems less forgiving.
Kamon uses it as a finishing stone (per IG) so we know someone is getting good results with it...
I could get decent results from the SP5K, but the feel of it was awful. I have the SP12K and its feedback is better.
Sp5k is a special animal. Learned to love it… but then it was easily superseeded by the Morihei 4K.
Got a Morihei 500 in a couple of days ago. I think I need to soak it for a few minutes next time I use it. Either that or coarse stones are just another ballgame! I was attempting to thin down a Global I’ve practiced on a bit too much…
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The 4K likes a short soak or at least a thorough rinsing of all sides before use. It’s not forced and it changes very little but that it seems less welcoming otherwise.
Coarse stones would then tend to need more water as a general rule. I’d sure experiment on that if I were you.
Edit: Global… it might need something a little more aggressive that I surmise Morihei 500 could ever be, but it’s for you to try and see for yourself.
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Had the SP1000, 2000 and 5000 together at work a few years ago. The 1 and 2K were great for my knives and the house knives. Never could find anything the 5 did well. It lives with someone else now.
Steampunk
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They are somewhat similar, but there are some nuanced differences between them...
Both are very hard, utterly splash & go 1K stones that create little to no mud, and mostly just produce inky metal swarf. Neither are especially fun to flatten, and I wouldn't rank either especially high for their pleasurable feedback. However, both are very effective stones. As others mentioned, they're both about 15-micron, so more inline with the Naniwa Pro/Chosera 800 grit.
Shapton's sieve tolerances for their abrasive particle sizes seem to be pretty tight compared to most stone manufacturers. This can be a pro, and a con... Pro, if you're doing critical polishing, sharpening straight razors, etc. Con, if you like the 'mixed grit toothy' feeling, that stones with much looser sieve standards give.
The Shapton Glass Stone 1000 HR feels a little harder, and a little grittier under the blade. It's slightly more keen to release abrasive than the Pro 1K (I wouldn't call it mud, as there's not much binder mixed in.).
The Shapton Professional /Kuromaku 1000 feels just that little bit 'mellower' than the GS 1K under the blade, and releases a little less abrasive. It's also unquestionably a better value than the GS series stone.
I slightly prefer the SG 1K on edge bevels. Particularly on somewhat more wear resistant steels, it just seems to have a little more 'bite', and release abrasive to help it keep cutting. I wouldn't say its feedback is better... In fact, it actually has a little more of that 'nails on a chalkboard' type of feeling/audible feedback, than the SP 1K... However, the friction level of the stone feels a little better on harder/slightly more wear resistant steels. It skates a little less, and you can feel it cutting more positively on these materials. It's still not a stone that I would pick for sharpening higher vanadium/tungsten steels (HAP-40/CPM-M4, Elmax, M390, S30V, etc. Like other AlOx stones, it tends to burnish more than I would like, even if it can 'technically' remove steel.), but it does a little better on stuff like SG2/R2, Aogami Super, or simply very hard knives in the 65hrc+ range, etc, than the SP 1K.
The SP 1K, however, I just adore for fine-tuning wide/single bevels. It doesn't load or dish much at all (Even over long thinning sessions.), it doesn't develop mud that erodes the shinogi line or hides any defects. It doesn't glaze, or suffers stiction (Like the SP 2K can on such knives.). It doesn't really generate any contrast between the core/cladding. It drinks very little water, so you don't flood your worktable when thinning a blade (I've never experienced this problem, like @esoo .). It just cuts. Very fast, and efficiently for its grit, with a very fine and consistent scratch pattern. It's simply the stone I always turn to for thinning work, to ensure I don't have problems that will bite me in the behind later. It just gets on with its work. For the price, and low maintenance, you just can't beat it for this job, in my opinion. I wouldn't consider the SG 1K for this job, even if it actually does perform vaguely similarly, as I have yet to see a performance gain with it in this role compared to the more economical SP 1K.
That said, and at risk of saying something that would go in the 'Unpopular Opinion' thread, I find their strengths to be fairly specific...
I find the edges from either stone to be some of the blandest 1K-ish I've used, if one intends to stop there. I also don't find them to be all that forgiving, or versatile enough to really recommend to newbies as their only stone. Both are stones that always fall into a 'transitional stone' category for me. They're both stones that help you get somewhere, and can do it very well, but they're not necessarily where I at least want to land.
Hopefully this helps...
Ah interesting. I actually tried the 320 yesterday for the first time too, and didn't really like that for basically the same reason I didn't like the 1.5k. Sounds like I shall have to try soaking them a little.
I was a little surprised I didn't like the 320, because I love the fast n muddy 220, but that's a very different beast it seems. As you say - the 320 feels like it's of the same ilk as the 1.5.
Yamabushi
Well-Known Member
Yep, this very directly mirrors my experience and opinion. FWIW. my go to progression these days (depending on how coarse I need to start) is the Shapton Pro #320, Shapton Pro #1000, Suehiro Debado MD-100, Ai-Iwatani J-nat, finishing with the Shapton Pro 12k for a very nice micro-bevel. I pretty much always forego my Shapton Pro #5000. As others have pointed out, it gives very minimal feedback and just doesn't seem to fit well into my sharpening style and needs. The Shapton Pro 12k however, offers really good feedback and leaves a very bitey edge, IMHO.
The SP320 was pretty fast for sharpening. Would work especially well with SS steels. Quite well behaved there at that if soaked a few minutes. It was painfully slow in thinning however, would tend to clog, required more water than its speed could ever compensate for.
In comparison the SG320 is slower overall, but it's very much like SG500 in general behavior. So in the end it is faster: no need to soak, no need for much water, no need to fuss over. If used in polishing the tidier scratch pattern also saves a lot of time as well.
Being quite finer, I cannot recall that the SP1500 was as "difficult" as the SP320, nowhere near. However in direct comparison with its two sisters, it's nothing like the 1K or 2K. Its general behavior with water, and how slowly and unevenly it dried, and more immediate "muddiness", was much more akin with the 320 than the upper grits.
Interesting, I had a feeling the Shapton 320 stones would be good for sharpening SS. I find the SG500 too slow to sharpen cheap stainless and I hate using the SG220 on edges.
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