Would Shapton Glassstone 500 likely a great candidate for convenience+speed+cost? Kinda Urgent purch

Advertise with us
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
GeneH

GeneH

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
435
Reaction score
57
I need to purchase a stone, probably today or tomorrow. Is there a good reason Shapton Glassstone 500 would not likely be a great candidate for convenience + speed + cost for a variety of blades and steels?

I am looking for sheer convenience and resistance to cracking in a S&G, that will be used at home, on the harder Gesshin monosteels, Mac Pro's, various hard and soft carbon, PM steel folders, down to everyday stainless like Wusthofs. Most likely to be used resetting bevels, maybe thinning 1/2 inch behind the edge.

The JKI 400x looks really good but requires a 15 minute soak as I understand it. Presumably being sintered it can withstand the wet-dry cycle without undue risk.

If cost wasn't a factor, I'd go with JKI sintered diamond stones, or regular diamond plates. I just don't trust the wear of diamond plates, especially if they are used with a lot of pressure. Been stung once and so kinda shy.
 
Good to know. I did all the searching I could and didn't really find any strong negatives on the Shapton Glass. Different feel than a soaker, but the requirement of "easy," as in pull it out, use it, put it back in the cabinet and forgetaboutit outweighs any advantages of the soaking stones.

I read somewhere a person felt the glass 500 was as fast or faster than the glass 320, so if it's kind close in speed 500 would be better for this application - tons faster than doing the same work on a 1k. Also *I think* the step from 500 to finishing on 1k is a large enough step w/o taking too long to remove the scratches. I
 
Last edited:
Another vote for the double thick Shapton glass 500.

It's what I reach for when I need to remove a lot of steel quickly but not quite enough/too delicate a piece for an electric grinder or belt sander. I have reprofiled knives with chipped off tips and thinned older knives with it, it just works.
 
GeneH said:
Ben do you have any comparison between the SG320 HR and the SG500 HR?
Click to expand...
No, I haven't. Would like to hear about it. But unless the 500 were miraculously faster than the 320, I wouldn't know why one should prefer the 500. The 320 is fast and doesn't dish or load, and leaves a smooth pattern. You may go straight to a medium-fine after it.
 
Today, I would buy the Nanohone 400. As I've said before, this would work as one stone wonder. I also have the SG500.

Diamonds just don't need pressure. I never could understand why this pressure approach is so popular. A cheap plate would put a completely new bevel on most knives in a couple of minutes. It's like 20-30$.
 
Hmmm. The Nanohone 400 is intriguing. The price is good.

Regarding the SG320 vs the SG500, I had to rely on my limited stone experience that the jump from 220 pink to 1K was a bit much and putting the JKI 400 in between really helped. Also I use the JKI 400 quite a bit on my outdoor blades that take a lot of damage.
 
I'll throw something else out there. A Norton crystolon coarse/fine combo stone. The 8" long one. Should be ~$40 or so. Will remove steel faster than any glasstone. Can use with water or Windex works very well. And there is no steel it won't grind
 
GS 500 is used alot/very popular because you can jump as high as ~2000 from it with good results fast when you don't need high polish. If you get a 500 also you can also skip 320 and get a 220 to 500 sequence for your rough stone. ALternatively, you can go 320, but some people think this is slower for thinning than the 220, and less ideal as a "mid grit" replacement if going that route.
 
Just got a SG500 and used it for the first time last night. I don't have much experience with stones but boy did that thing feel good compared to what I have used. Definitely made the task on a 1k hyper even easier.
 
The window to purchase opened up a little thank goodness, and I had more time for your suggestions.

Thanks for the feedback!

I like sintered SIC stones like the Norton’s (when they aren’t clogged with oil and debris) and really should get a pocket size medium grit to carry in the woods for edge repair.
 
I've never noticed clogging. With India stones yes but not the crystolon
 
hi. i have the 500 dt glass. and its very good imo. very fast and you can push as hard as you want. also very slow dishing.

i also have the 220 glass and pro. and those are faster stones but they dish much much faster. and thats a big problem if doing flat surfaces.

the problem i have with both the glass and pro 220ies is this: first they dish fast. and then when you flatten them ( i use the dmt diaflat 160) they get much much finer than they originally are.
and it takes a few minutes of high pressure grinding to get the stones to be very coarse and aggressive again after the flattening. and when this happens they stones needs flattening!

i recently bought a 100 grit black silicon carbide stone and it was good for about 2-3 minutes. then it simply stopped cutting. it became slower than the 220 stones i already have.
but if i used extreme contact pressure if would cut. but its not practical or realistic. then i tried flattening my 220ies with it. and it was very good for this! the sic stone became very glass and smooth after flattening my 220ies though. so somehow it needs to be dressed to get the bite back. i sent if off to a coworker for him to try out and have not investigated further.

i did however get some sandpaper. SiC sandpaper!! a4 size. and simply wrapped them around a stone and put in my stone holder. i have 120 and 60grit.
tried out the 120 grit dry. and my oh my it was fast and good. i could use the 120 with good bite for about 25-30 minutes. it got finer and finer doing this but still cutting well. wow that material removal was awesome. way better than my diamond stones and coarse stones. after 25 minutes i thought i should try it with water. and this was a big mistake since it completely killed the cutting action. so no water on paper thats my recommendation.

25 minutes of good cutting and staying flat is quite good imo. the 220ies would have needed to be flattened 2-3 times in this time. and they lose a lot of bite/abrasive power when doing that.

the glass 500 though is a finer stone. its a lot fast than 1k stones. and it does not seem to dish fast at all. and it does not seem to lose much bit after flattening either (since its finer than the flattening plates).
the 500 is good combo with a 3k glass. its all you need really.
 
I love wet and dry paper. It can get expensive over time but it works very well indeed
 
Alox is harder to find in the finer grits and generally is designed for wood. 3m mylar backed paper is good but expensive
 
inferno said:
hi. i have the 500 dt glass. and its very good imo. very fast and you can push as hard as you want. also very slow dishing.

i also have the 220 glass and pro. and those are faster stones but they dish much much faster. and thats a big problem if doing flat surfaces.

the problem i have with both the glass and pro 220ies is this: first they dish fast. and then when you flatten them ( i use the dmt diaflat 160) they get much much finer than they originally are.
and it takes a few minutes of high pressure grinding to get the stones to be very coarse and aggressive again after the flattening. and when this happens they stones needs flattening!

i recently bought a 100 grit black silicon carbide stone and it was good for about 2-3 minutes. then it simply stopped cutting. it became slower than the 220 stones i already have.
but if i used extreme contact pressure if would cut. but its not practical or realistic. then i tried flattening my 220ies with it. and it was very good for this! the sic stone became very glass and smooth after flattening my 220ies though. so somehow it needs to be dressed to get the bite back. i sent if off to a coworker for him to try out and have not investigated further.

i did however get some sandpaper. SiC sandpaper!! a4 size. and simply wrapped them around a stone and put in my stone holder. i have 120 and 60grit.
tried out the 120 grit dry. and my oh my it was fast and good. i could use the 120 with good bite for about 25-30 minutes. it got finer and finer doing this but still cutting well. wow that material removal was awesome. way better than my diamond stones and coarse stones. after 25 minutes i thought i should try it with water. and this was a big mistake since it completely killed the cutting action. so no water on paper thats my recommendation.

25 minutes of good cutting and staying flat is quite good imo. the 220ies would have needed to be flattened 2-3 times in this time. and they lose a lot of bite/abrasive power when doing that.

the glass 500 though is a finer stone. its a lot fast than 1k stones. and it does not seem to dish fast at all. and it does not seem to lose much bit after flattening either (since its finer than the flattening plates).
the 500 is good combo with a 3k glass. its all you need really.
Click to expand...

Inferno: I think you might want to try lose SiC coarse grit (e.g. 60) on your sub-500 stones, that’s what I do. It‘s a bit messy, but otherwise work great for surface re-conditioning. I had the same experience as you with a rough 100 grit black SiC stone.
And thanks for the 500, 3k recommendation, I have just ordered this combo as a travel kit (plus the Nanohone 200 as a Shapton 220 alternative...).
 
I usually try to specify as much as possible what knife makes a stone behave in a certain way. There's a reason for this. Unfortunately I don't always know the knives I receive.

Shapton Glass 220 has a dual personality, but rarely in the good way. Just too often it's slow by itself. Some alloys will glaze it worse than others, but this would just make it worse. And even with surface conditioning, that's also time and it might just as well be for nothing if it would cut like crazy for a few seconds and the surface would need work again.
But it doesn't always perform like this. I think I had some suminagashi blade and with that, it would cut and cut, exactly the same grinding feeling and sound from start to finish. The only thing that didn't make me happy with this was the other problem, dishing. It would cut so well, but it would vanish before my very eyes and I have a very light touch.
At this point you can easily imagine someone with a similar knife and that stone, reading my comment about how slow it was. I sometimes I might be that someone. Let's take sandpaper for example. I have a pile of all types and grits. I use them to restore stuff. And I would not sharpen on them even if paid. Rarely even very coarse grits would be able to cut more than a couple of minutes, unless it's some soft stuff that would generate other problems while being dry. The best even performance I got was using WD40. Huge difference with the quality of the cut.
Not all the paper types are made for water. Unless they are specifically made to be used with water, the particles on them won't perform well and would die fast.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top