Proyan 15000 grit stone
Shrenik spotted these stones for sale, and being a bit of a high grit sharpening junkie. I had to get one and take it for a spin. The detail that really got my attention was the claimed micron rating for the stone. 0.64???? That’s significantly finer than Shaption’s 15000 glass stone which comes in at 0.92 microns. Considering this stone sells for about 40 euro, and a Shapton 15000 for about 140 euro. That’s a hell of a bargain if its true
This is why I ignore all grit/mesh ratings on sharpening media. If you are not going to tell me the micron size of the abrasive, I’m just not interested. A few months back I watched a video on Youtube that claimed stropping does not work. What the video missed, was that the honing compound they were using was coarser than their final stone…. Now some suppliers may lie about the micron rating, and at really fine grits, its hard to check it yourself.
The stone arrived, very well packed and padded, it attractive packaging that clearly ….. pays homage to the Shapton glass stone line. These stones are a lot thicker than a Shapton glass stone, but also a little shorter. It came pretty flat out of the box. A minutes work with a diamond stone, and it was completely flat. But very difficult to work. The diamond stone stuck to the water stone very easily. I had to add water about every 20 seconds to work it.
I broke out my microscope and put the Shapton and the Proyan under it and ….. I cant tell what’s media and what’s grit. My little scope is just not powerful enough. Regardless of what they may claim, almost every electronic USB microscope you see out there is actually a 50 or 100x microscope despite claims of 1000x or more. This is not enough to tell what was going on with the stones.
I selected a moving filister iron that I had previously lapped on the Shapton, and took a look at it under the scope, and then lapped it on the Proyan and took a look under the scope. I alternated directions so I could tell what scratches are which … and …. Its too close for me to be 100% sure. The Proyan stone is definitely very fine, and if forced to bet, I would say its the finer stone, so that micron rating is very likely accurate.
In use the stone is not as pleasant to use as the Shapton glass. Its clearly softer and creates a thicker muddier slurry. In initial use I treated it like a Shapton glass stone and splashed water on and worked it. This is not a splash and go stone. You can get away with it to touch up an edge, but for lapping, you need to soak this stone for a while before use. Even then it;s still stickier and not as pleasant to work as the Shapton. After initial use I also found that the ends of the stone had worn far in excess of what I expected. I spent quite a while flattening, and did not get down to the wear at either end. I suspect a fault in the stone that caused it to shed grit & media at the ends very quickly.
That is not a deal breaker. There is still a large usable area, but its worrying from a long term use point of view. Is that problem going to grow and grow? Or will I flatten down to it soon and find the stone is fine from there on? I can’t predict. A chunk just seemed to disappear from the side of the stone during flattening as well. I’m not sure this stone will last a long time.
The finish was not as mirror a finish as the Shapton. That says nothing about the grit rating. Shiner finishes are not always sharper finishes. I’ve read many theories on why some stones leave a cloudier finish than others. None have completely satisfied me. The most plausible is that stones that generate more slurry generate less linear scratch patterns which results in the cloud effect. My Shapton 6000 leaves a very cloudy finish, but looking at the scratches under my microscope, its clearly a lot finer than my 1200 grit Atoma diamond plate, which leaves a much more mirror finish.
In summary, for a very low micron (i.e high grit) stone, This is a hell of a bargain. Shapton’s 30000 grit stone sells for about 300 euro, and its 0.49 micron. The distance between this stone, and the Shapton 30000 is less than the difference between the Shapton 16000 and the Proyan 15000. If you always wanted to try a very low micron stone, this is very hard to beat for the money. I have my doubts about the long term life time of the stone. I prefer the mirror finish of the Shapton 15000. This stone needs to be soaked, not splashed. I don’t see myself actually using this stone very often given I have the Shapton 15000, but if I did not, It would probably be my finishing stone now.
The Proyan packaging, more than a little like the Shapton….
Out of the box. Note the thick slice of foam, and the packaging the box was in was padded again.
Shapton and Proyan side by side.
After flattening and a little use. Note the Proyan has very low areas at either end. And a low spot on the bottom left that will turn into a divot in time.
The Proyan is a lot thicker
I love that both of these stones give the micron rating on the back. 0.64 is pretty incredible for this price point, and I have no reason to doubt it so far. It its not 0.64, its not far off.
After some more use and flattenings, what initially looked like a low spot just came off the stone during flattening.
A close up of one end of the stone. Its pretty deep, not just usage wear. 10 minutes of flatening made no real impact on it.
The finish from the Shapton stone
The finish from the Proyan stone
Microscope view of the scratches. Proyan on the left. Shapton on the right. To my eye the Proyan seems slightly finer. The Proyan also consistently had a more colourful look than the Shapton under the scope. I wonder if that is somehow related to the cloudier appearance of the finish?