Shapton 5K to 16K jump

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I never gave it much thought, but...

I own a Norton 5K stone. I believe it to be the SHAPTON professional series Wine 5000. I believe that people have expressed a certain dislike in general for this stone with a strong like for the 6K glass stone that I have never tried. I will admit that the 5K stone can be a bit temperamental for me, but I always assumed that it was my inexperience.
See https://www.shapton.com/traditional-series

From there, I jump all the way to a 16K glass stone.

After the back is flattened, I hollow grind, so I have always made this work, but, it occurred to me that I might want to put another stone between them. I was thinking about a 10K shapton glass stone since it is my primarily what I use and I like the no soak part. My other water stones I do soak, but they are used less.

I did consider the Sigma Power select II at 10K.

Any thoughts on which would work better on PM-V11 from Lee Valley?

Any thoughts on inserting the 10K into the mix?

[Chris Hachet]

I never gave it much thought, but...

I own a Norton 5K stone. I believe it to be the SHAPTON professional series Wine 5000. I believe that people have expressed a certain dislike in general for this stone with a strong like for the 6K glass stone that I have never tried. I will admit that the 5K stone can be a bit temperamental for me, but I always assumed that it was my inexperience.
See https://www.shapton.com/traditional-series

From there, I jump all the way to a 16K glass stone.

After the back is flattened, I hollow grind, so I have always made this work, but, it occurred to me that I might want to put another stone between them. I was thinking about a 10K shapton glass stone since it is my primarily what I use and I like the no soak part. My other water stones I do soak, but they are used less.

I did consider the Sigma Power select II at 10K.

Any thoughts on which would work better on PM-V11 from Lee Valley?

Any thoughts on inserting the 10K into the mix?

10K would not hurt, but unsure which of your tools is not getting sharp enough. Curious to see what you do...

[Andy Nichols]

Go from 1000 to 16000, for all resharpening, only use intermediarie stones for things like flattening chisels....sharpening is an interesting and sometimes volatile subject, opinions on the subject are never finite.

However, assume you are using something before the 5000, to get a burr, like a 1000?

Andy
-- mos maiorum

[Patrick Chase]

I never gave it much thought, but...

I own a Norton 5K stone. I believe it to be the SHAPTON professional series Wine 5000. I believe that people have expressed a certain dislike in general for this stone with a strong like for the 6K glass stone that I have never tried. I will admit that the 5K stone can be a bit temperamental for me, but I always assumed that it was my inexperience.
See https://www.shapton.com/traditional-series

From there, I jump all the way to a 16K glass stone.

After the back is flattened, I hollow grind, so I have always made this work, but, it occurred to me that I might want to put another stone between them. I was thinking about a 10K shapton glass stone since it is my primarily what I use and I like the no soak part. My other water stones I do soak, but they are used less.

I did consider the Sigma Power select II at 10K.

Any thoughts on which would work better on PM-V11 from Lee Valley?

Any thoughts on inserting the 10K into the mix?

A 3X jump isn't (or shouldn't be) a problem. Those stones should work pretty well on PM-V11. They're not so good on non-PM high-alloy steels (D2, HSS, etc) but PM-V11 is pretty "friendly" due to its very small grain size.

As to the performance of the 5K, it tends to load up and "skip", but that's easily managed with water (soaking/flushing). The Glass 6K does have a softer binder, which makes it a bit more loading-resistant and also gives it better performance on A2, but causes it to dish a bit faster. The Glass stone is also insanely expensive for what you get, particularly when you consider that there's only 5 mm of actual stone (vs 14 mm for the Pro and 25 mm for basically all competitors).

If you're looking for a better 5K-ish stone then you should take a look at the Sigma 6K or the Imanishi 4K. One thing to be aware of is that Shapton rates stones differently than others, so you can't compare based on grit # alone. For example the Sigma Power 6K has ~2 um particle size (vs ~2.5 in the Shapton Glass 6K) and cuts about as finely as the Shapton Pro 8K in my experience.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

So probably the primary advantage for an intermediate stone would be for things like flattening backs. For regular sharpening I am fine.

My 5K stone looks like it will last me a long time. I have had it a few years and it still has a bunch of life left in it. If I do wear it out, I will consider a 6K stone instead.

I have not noticed issues with the PMV-11, but they came in great shape and using my Tormek to hollow-grind makes it pretty easy and fast to touch up those blades.

I just wanted to make sure I was not adding extra work for myself.

Thanks All...

[Patrick Chase]

My 5K stone looks like it will last me a long time. I have had it a few years and it still has a bunch of life left in it. If I do wear it out, I will consider a 6K stone instead.

The Shapton 5K is almost 3X as thick as the glass stone (14 mm vs 5) and harder and slower-dishing as well. It won't last quite as long as some competitive 25-mm-thick stones, but it should take a very long time to wear that stone out.