Shapton calls them ceramic. Do you think they are lying? Why would they lie?
Are they gluing this stuff together? I have some of these stones. If they
are not ceramic it is not obvious what they could be.
The Japanese have a long history of ceramics and continue to research
ceramic technologies constantly.
It is not a stretch to say that they lead the world in this industry.
When the US needed tiles to keep the space shuttle cool they went to Japan
to find the man to do this.
He came up with something light and highly heat resistant. Too bad they
didn't spec something that was "big chunk of insulation" resistant as well.
Ceramics can be designed to have a huge range of properties.
Here are some typical tolerances for industrial ceramic components.
http://americas.kyocera.com/kicc/ind...ance/index.htm
Without grinding, flatness is typically 6 thousandths of an inch. With
grinding they can bring it down to 2/100,000ths.
6 thousandths over 8 inches is pretty flat. 2/100,000ths is well... really
flat. There is no reason other than cost saving for a ceramic sharpening
stone to be anything less than flat.
It is as absurd to state that it is impossible for ceramics to be flat as it
is to state that it is impossible for steel to be flat. You mention that
ceramics undergo high heat which distorts them. Um.... so does steel. In
fact, ceramics distort much less under heat than steel. Silicon nitride has
a co-efficient of expansion 1/6 of that of stainless steel.
I hope this clears up your confusion.
-j
"Joe Bleau" wrote in message
...
I've heard of these Shapton stones and I do not believe they are true
ceramic stones (fused through extremely high heat) but are really a
type of Japanese water stone which use a different procedure for
binding the abrasives than normal Japanese stones. I am not saying
this with certainty and I could be wrong but I don't think so.
Ceramic stones undergo intense heat and it's the heating that distorts
them and makes it next impossible to create perfect flatness. I'm
sure there are people who understand this a lot better than I do and I
hope one of them will stumble across the thread and clear things up.
Joe
Well, if you should find a ceramic stone finer than 1800 please let us
know.
Joe
http://www.shaptonstones.com/stones/...nal-Series.php
120, 220, 320, 1000, 1500, 2000, 5000, 8000, 15000, 30000
I'd never use anything finer than 8000, but there is always the option.
Here is my experience with them.
http://masamiki.com/mono/tools/sharpening.htm
-j