There was a time when owning a water stone as coarse as 120 grit wouldn't even enter my mind. I couldn't have imagined finding a use for one. That was due to ignorance on my part and even if I did have access to a 120 grit stone at that time I wouldn't have been skilled enough or have the knowledge to get what I could from it.
That was ten years go and things have changed.
I now own the Shapton Glass 120 and Shapton Pro 120.
For the person who sharpens his/her own knives, these stones would likely not be necessary and if you do sharpen your own knives, kudos to you, not many people do that.
For me however, a man who sharpens other peoples knives daily, these are now quite often the first stones I pick up. I like them both the same actually and I got the Glass from Fendrihans.ca and the Shapton Pro 120 off of Amazon.
Why do I like them so much?
They do a superb job of setting the bevels and forming a burr rapidly with moderate pressure. I often follow up with an 800 grit Naniwa Professional stone and the results have really been quite good and I have become quite reliant on these stones. Some would say that they are to coarse and you will remove to much metal needlessly and therefore reduce the life of a knife. If one were to use to much pressure, yes, but that is true with any coarse stone. The bottom line for me is that the fatigued metal has to come off. Why not use a stone that is extremely effective at doing that and one that sets the stage for sharpening success. I have tested these stones on about 200 knives so far and I think they are fantastic.
Again, not something the average sharpener may need if you own a 500 grit stone for example but for repairs, thinning and sharpening very dull knives, they excel.
All the best and thank you so much for being here.
Peter Nowlan
How is the longevity of these stones in comparison to other coarse stones. I know they are rather thin does this reduce their lifespan?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your time.
Hi Matt, despite the fact that they are thinner they do not seem to wear any faster or have a shorter lifespan than thicker stones. I have owned about ten 500 grit stones but that is over several years and I sharpen every day. Believe me, I would not buy ten of the same stone if they wore out more quickly than I expected them to
DeleteHow do you allocate a use for each 120 grit stone having both the pro and glass? I mean, do you have a preference for one stone over the other for a particular type of repair or even sessions in general? Maybe one is muddier than the other or one cuts specific steel better etc.
ReplyDeleteThank you in advance and it is nice to see your still writing!
Hey Kit. As hard as I’ve tried to pick a favourite among these two stones I just can’t, I like them both the same. I’ve tried each on every type of steel I can and they both seem to work just as well. I typically move from one of these to a 600 or 800 grit Naniwa Professional. When it comes to replacing them I’ll go with the Glass because I can but them in Canada. One isn’t muddier than the other, they even feel very similar. I used to use an Atoma 140 to reset the bevels but that wore out to quickly. These stones wear very slowly and do just as good a job as the Atoma. So I don’t have a preference yet, maybe when I get some ZDP 189 I’ll find that one is better but until then I love them both.
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