Sillyness is in the great British Python tradition.
However Shapton do stones of 15,000 and 30,000 grit, these are sold in the USA by Harrellson Stanley, who I assume to be American. I believe he spent many years learning traditional single bevel, freehand sharpening in Japan and is extremely good at it.
Then of course there are the wonders of industrial diamond paste going down to certainly 1/3 of a micron, probably even finer.
In the beginning, there were many forms of mined stone and they were seen to be good. They were used for thousands of years for the sharpening of hunting tools, weapons and woodworking stuff. Much better than the ubiquitous man made India stone, which came to pass in the twentieth century
Then came 6000 which seemed better than anything I had ever seen,
Then came the 8000 which seemed a fraction better,
Next the lure of the 10000, just because it was marginally cheaper and had a nice wooden base, can't swear that the improvement was detectable....
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I expect all this will be heresy to some, and that is absolutely fine.
I find the 8000 King seems to have the nicest feel, and I cannot recommend it highly enough, to those who are interested. ( Norton 8000 seems very similar & I have not tried the multitude of more expensive ceramic type japanese stones). Those who are not, will presumably continue contentedly with the fine side of an India oilstone, which is cost effective and will get most jobs done.
David Charlesworth
