What is up with Shapton Glass

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galvaude

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Some vendors from Japan don't sell them anymore saying they are discontinued. The Shapton website is down, their YouTube channel is removed and some vendors in North America are having back order issues. Someone here knows if they are discontinued for good ? Discuss.
 
Maybe this isn't so helpful, but I recall hearing some buzz that the Shapton Glass line has been discontinued
 
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This is all that is left of my double thick 500. I'm surprised I have not hit glass yet. Gonna need to find something to replace it soon. If they are gone, I'll be sad. I really like the 500.
 
Agree on the 500, love that stone as well.
 
Rumor about that has been out there last year too. Because one Japanese vendor could not get them anymore and wrote that they "may be" discontinued. That was never confirmed.

But since then they still kept showing up back in stock regularly, at least in multiple shops Europe.
 
Ruso said:
What so great abt the SG 500?
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Splash and go, not overly muddy, plenty fast, good feedback, even finish that is easily followed by 2k or more. The only negative I can think of is price per mm of stone.
 
Yep, I love my SG500 but that is about the only stone in the line I actually like to use. Don't get me wrong, the others work well but I don't like using them. Regardless, at the very least it does seem that US vendors are having supply issues. All of the vendors I frequent are out of stock almost all of the time on the glass stones over the past year or so. Pro stones seem to be in stock at least a little more regularly. Some US vendors seemed to have quit carrying specific stones from the Glass lineup as well or at least they are no longer listed.

I have no idea if there is any validity to the claim that the stones are being discontinued but if you can't get them then, to me, it is the same consequence.
 
Gotta have one then... Will close a gap between 320 and 1000 nicely.
 
Ruso said:
Gotta have one then... Will close a gap between 320 and 1000 nicely.
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It would indeed. The finish it leaves would allow you to skip the 1k if you wanted. I routinely go from the 500 to a 3k ish Aoto with fine results.
 
dwalker said:
View attachment 36500
This is all that is left of my double thick 500. I'm surprised I have not hit glass yet. Gonna need to find something to replace it soon. If they are gone, I'll be sad. I really like the 500.
Click to expand...

SG500 is denser than other brands. I don't know how many years I could use out mine.
 
When my 16k never shipped after 2 months of waiting, I cancelled my order at Woodcraft, and they told me that there was family drama at Shapton. Doesn't sound like it's resolved...
 
Ken Schwartz everyone's ex business partner says he has the complete glass line in stock - for what it's worth.
 
LifeByA1000Cuts said:
Maybe it has to do with that "Seven" series that some stores now seem to offer for preorder?
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I've not seen these. However, shapton usa states that stones are no longer available on their site. I suppose that could mean a lot of things but you can not navigate the site at all.
 
K813zra said:
I've not seen these. However, shapton usa states that stones are no longer available on their site. I suppose that could mean a lot of things but you can not navigate the site at all.
Click to expand...

Note that they wrote "shapton products", that is not specific to shapton glass.
 
No official infomation available on the web, but there are a few sources imply that the glass stone lineup has been discontinued since, well, around 2014 actually.
They said that the product lacked appeal and didn't go well in the domestic market, (a thin and expensive stone never goes well...) although overseas markets do not have preconceived bias about the synthetic stone and valued its performance.

I have no idea why Shapton US official site should go out.
And... hm, Shapton Glass Stone Seven? I don't know but they should hire better web manager maybe?
 
tommybig said:
Note that they wrote "shapton products", that is not specific to shapton glass.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that it was just the glass stones but I could have written that better.

I have seen a few vendors state that they could not get stones because Shapton USA is no longer a distributor of shapton stones and that the dealers had to wait to get stones directly from Japan. Take that for what it is worth, though.
 
That is the interesting question: is "Shapton USA" shapton or just some distributor that was given rights to the name?
 
Oh, on their official Japanese webpage there's a footnote on the glass stones which roughly translates as
"distribution in Japan is not determined", which most likely means they are still planned for the overseas market.

LifeByA1000Cuts said:
That is the interesting question: is "Shapton USA" shapton or just some distributor that was given rights to the name?
Click to expand...
A search yielded unfamiliar names like "HMS Enterprises INC." and "Japanese Tools.Com".
sort of interesting indeed, though I don't know who they are.
 
LifeByA1000Cuts said:
That is the interesting question: is "Shapton USA" shapton or just some distributor that was given rights to the name?
Click to expand...

no_one_just_Roy said:
Oh, on their official Japanese webpage there's a footnote on the glass stones which roughly translates as
"distribution in Japan is not determined", which most likely means they are still planned for the overseas market.

A search yielded unfamiliar names like "HMS Enterprises INC." and "Japanese Tools.Com".
sort of interesting indeed, though I don't know who they are.
Click to expand...

For whatever reason I always got the impression Shapton USA wasn't really an arm of Shapton, but just a distributor who had rights for the NA market.

HMS probably just stands for Harrelson M Stanley, who was the head of Shapton USA.
 
LifeByA1000Cuts said:
That is the interesting question: is "Shapton USA" shapton or just some distributor that was given rights to the name?
Click to expand...

I figured that they were just the distributor for North America. If other vendors claim to be able to once again order stones but directly from Japan, I don't see as to how this will have any real impact on those who want the stones. I could be wrong, though. Maybe we can see product flow again soon rather than everything being out of stock.
 
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