Which Shapton stones? Professional or High Carbon???

[Dan Barr]

(Normal waterstones or High Carbon?)

I'm looking at replacing my waterstones with some higher quality ones. I see lots of stuff out there.

I'm just looking for opinions on two types of shapton stones. or any oother types out there that i might not know of except norton waterstones.

Shapton offers their normal stones (glass backed and professional) and high carbon steel stones as well. Is there enough of a difference to warrant getting the high carbon steel versions. I do have a few irons with blister steel laid on.

Also, their website seems to be way out of whack lately. Any info on whats going on?

Cheers,

dan

[Sam Takeuchi]

What exactly is a high carbon steel stone? Blister steel? Are you talking about their lapping plate? Or diamond "bevel work" stone? As far as I know, Shapton offers Glass, Pro and M series stones, they all are of ceramic type one way or another with different characteristics. Lapping plate is for flattening those stones, not for general sharpening and their diamond is for re-establishing bevel. I don't think they even offer different grits. Not for general sharpening either.

Do a search on Shapton, there are a lot of Glass or Pro discussions in the past, all that can be said about them are already here. What's not discussed much is the M series. M5 is very soft, it's not really designed for woodworking tools, more like general purpose sharpening stones for occasional home use. M15 is the hardest of the M series, recommended for woodworking tools (but still don't live up to Pro or Glass), M24 is for kitchen tools.

[Mike Henderson]

Blister steel, made via the cementation process, has not been made for a lot of years. Perhaps you mean "Cast steel" laid on.

In any case, if it was blister steel, it would probably be marked "Shear steel" or "Double shear steel" and not "Blister steel".

And if it was blister steel, the carbon content would probably not be really high. Blister steel was made by putting wrought iron in a sealed chest with carbon material (usually charcoal) and cooked for a long period of time. Over time, the carbon would diffuse into the iron, with more carbon in the outside and less towards the center. The melting point of iron and steel decreases with an increase in carbon content, so if the iron absorbed too much carbon, it could melt and the maker would have a mess on their hands.

For tool applications, the bars of blister steel were faggoted (layered), and the faggot was heated and hammered. This was an attempt to make the steel more homogeneous and was called "Shear steel". If the faggot was bent double and heated/hammered again, it was called "Double shear steel".

This heating burned some of the carbon out of the steel so the result was a more homogeneous but lower carbon steel.

Additionally, wrought iron had a lot of slag entrained in it, and the cementation process did not remove it. These problems of blister steel led to the development of cast steel by Huntsman in about 1750. Cast steel (made through the crucible process) was a significant improvement over blister steel.

But if you do have blister steel, I doubt if it has a really high carbon content, except maybe in some pockets.

Regarding waterstones, I use the Shapton Professional stones and have been satisfied.

Mike

[Source: Primarily "Steelmaking before Bessemer" Vol 1, by KC Barraclough]

[Russ Massery]

I switched over Shapton pros a few months back. I can say they stay flat much longer then standard waterstones, I was using. And not having to soak them before use is nice also. They also don't make the mess that my old stones did. I read good things about Naniwa " Super Stones" also during my research. Though I have no personal experience with them.

[Ken Garlock]

Another vote for the Shapton Professional stones. I have the 220, 1000, 4000, and 8000 stones. They do an excellent job.

Also, you will want to buy the cast iron flattening plate along with the grits for each stone you have. Even though they are great stones, they will tend to cup with use.

[Dan Barr]

Mike,

thanks for a tutorial, however, i'm asking opinions on "which shapton stones".

if its blister or cast, doesnt matter to me. its far beyond rockwell 62 so its much harder to make any progress sharpening. BTW, its not marked and i never said it was marked. these planes that have these blades are old. some with and some without a laid on section of steel.

Does anyone know anything abou the high carbon stones from shapton?

Thanks

dan

[Mike Henderson]

Ah, you know how it is, ask an engineer what time it is and you get a discussion of how to make a clock.

Mike