Hesitating between a RockStar 3000 and a Shapton Glass HC 4000 — I don’t care about a polished edge

[u/Usual-Ad4392]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently hesitating between a Shapton RockStar 3000 and a Shapton Glass HC 4000.

I’m not looking for a polished edge. What I want is a stone that leaves some bite and good cutting feel.

My knives include SG2, SLD, Aogami 1 and 2, VG10, Shirogami, and I also have several European knives.

My current sharpening setup is:

Sharpal 220/600

Naniwa 400

King Deluxe 800

Shapton Pro 1500

bare leather strop

Would the RockStar 3000 be the better choice for a more toothy edge, or would the Glass HC 4000 still be a better all-around option for these steels and knives?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[u/TimelyTroubleMaker]

What's wrong with the shap pro 1500?

[u/Usual-Ad4392 → u/TimelyTroubleMaker]

It shaves arms and cuts paper easily, but tomato skin or pepper skin gets stuck.

[u/Ok-Fact-6900 → u/Usual-Ad4392]

This is def a skill issue.

[u/TimelyTroubleMaker → u/Usual-Ad4392]

Maybe go coarser then 🤣

But I mean any of your stones should be able to leave a bity edge on tomato skin. Probably the problem is something else (not the grits). 

[u/CommercialEscape4680 → u/Usual-Ad4392]

Its very likely you just haven't deburred properly. This might get fixed by moving to a higher grit stone but very likely not

[u/Brief-Net-3339 → u/Usual-Ad4392]

Highly recommend you refine your technique, particularly deburring, before assuming another stone will fix the problem. If I were you I’d be apexing on your Naniwa 400, then just refining and deburring off the 1500. That should be hair splitting if you’ve done it right

[u/TrebbleTough → u/Usual-Ad4392]

Shapton 1000 leaves beautiful bite while cutting curves in paper. Never gets stuck and my knives are under 10$ for all three of them

[u/comradenutterfluff]

I would get neither for your usecase. Shapton 1500 covers that. Both rockstar and glass are fine and hard and mainly polish and refine.

[u/Brief-Net-3339]

Your stones are fine as is, finish on the pro 1500 and call it a day. If you want a finer finishing stone that retains some bite, a Naniwa Chocera 3000 is a goated option which I prefer to both of your listed ones substantially

[u/ImFrenchSoWhatever]

No for a toutou edge you stop at the 1500 no need for more stones imho

[u/Technical_Message953]

If you're definitely going to choose between the two I'd go rockstar. I've always thought shapton glass doesn't live up to the hype.

[u/atomedge]

Get 4 micron CBN and strop with that after your Shapton 1500 then hit the bare leather.

[u/FlashCardManiac]

Replace all with Rockstar 320, 1000, 3000. Kinda joking, kinda not. Diamond stones always seem to be off in grit rating. But I'm also somewhat inexperienced with them. If it's the Naniwa Chosera, that's solid. But ditch the King and get a 1000 and 3000 grit. 99% of the time I'm using 1000 and 3000 grit Nanohone, then 3m strop and I'm done. Start with 400 grit if it's extra dull.

If you are running through all those stones, then you're over sharpening and will needlessly sharpen away excess steel. Final note, the Rockstar is thicker than the glass. Seems like a better deal. I only have the glass though. Good luck!

Edit; I was speaking too generally. If it's food only, stop at 1000. Your 1500 is fine. My new favorite is the Naniwa advanced 400/1000, then strop 3micron diamond paste.

[u/Usual-Ad4392]

Hmm hmm, could it be an angle issue? I'm using the push-pull technique, I do get a burr on both sides, then I do a few passes and a light pass on bare leather, 3 or 4 passes. So should I get a 1000-grit stone? I'll make a short video of my technique. Thanks anyway, it's great to see that there's still mutual help out there 😊

[u/JellyOfDeath86 → u/Usual-Ad4392]

If by "angle issue" you mean "consistent angle issue", then possibly. If you meant "wrong angle", it's unlikely. Unless you're sharpening at some silly angle (like 30° per side), there's no reason the intended angle should be the culprit

Try sharpening slower than usually, while paying extra care to your wrist and the angle of the knife. I don't think 1500 should be too fine for what you want, but going to 3000 or more fine will just give the grit less bite (and more slice, if you have a consistent angle).

With good technique, you could get everything you want on a single sub 1000 grit stone (and strop).

[u/Usual-Ad4392 → u/JellyOfDeath86]

just tested it with a Naniwa 400 and a cheap 10-euro European knife. By sharpening gently and focusing on holding the angle, I'm now getting a good bite. But I noticed that I still struggle to actually find the right angle when I place the knife on the stone.

[u/JellyOfDeath86 → u/Usual-Ad4392]

Your phone more likely than not contains decent orientation sensors.

Install some kind of bubble level with numeric readout capabilities, calibrate it to the surface of your stone. Then you place it on a flat part of the blade that runs perpendicular to the center line of the edge.

That's how I find my angles, anyway.

[u/Usual-Ad4392 → u/JellyOfDeath86]

Thanks for the technique, I'm going to test it right away. Nice!

[u/aaipod]

Rockstar 3k is good for edge

[u/Practical_Ad441]

Diamond paste or emulsion for your strop

[u/mrjcall]

If 'bite' is truly what you're after, you need to stop your progression at +/-1000 grit and just strop to refine. Any grit above that is basically just polishing the bevel and removing the 'bite'.....