30,000 Grit!

Shapton's 30,000 grit stones are the finest water stones we know of. Perfect for those of you on the quest for the sharpest edge!
Kuromaku stone
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GlassStone
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G7 Knife Sharpening Kit
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Individual G7 Stones
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Sharpening Articles and Information:
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Sharpening Supplies has over 1,700 different sharpening related items available. All items come with our exclusive guarantee.
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[@CGSW]

I find that when you get beyond a 4 to 8k stone you are better served with a strop of the correct hardness. The bond hardness plays a pivotal role in how stones work and the finish they leave. The coarser the stone the harder the bond should be, the finer the stone the softer the bond, and at some point you need to switch to a strop to get the bond to be soft enough. If you look at the bevel under a good microscope what I am talking about becomes obvious. Using the same abrasives the stone or strop with the softer bond will leave finer scratches.

[@mad993]

Isn’t that basically as fine as a leather strop?

[@SharpeningSupplies]

Yes, the abrasives are about 0.5 micron. The advantage of the stone is that you won't get the rounding effect strops sometimes produce if you apply too much pressure. Although @CSGW left an interesting comment about their experiences with strops vs super-fine stones.

[@CarnivoreConservative]

You looked like you may be struggling explaining why anyone could possibly need anything this extreme.

[@SharpeningSupplies]

You're not wrong. A 30,000 grit is an extremely fine stone, finer than most people will need. The finest stone in my personal setup is the Shapton 16k GlassStone and even that doesn't get a whole lot of use. Only when I'm sharpening my straight razor or getting real fancy with my woodworking tools. But there are folks that want to take their edges to this level of finesse.

[@infernape425]

As he said, the hunt for the sharpest edge. For me personally my sharpening is a bigger hobby than my knives. Not practical in any way but in the hobbyist hunt for perfection it comes in useful. I could see it being beneficial in straight razors though, sharpening to the finest possible edge has its benefits with those.

[@SevereMkII]

It'a a halo product. Something for the people who want that special bit extra. No one NEEDS a $500,000 supercar, but they make them and people buy them. I personally have both of the 30k stones. But I also had several knives that have infinite sentimental value to me from various global adventures. So they were all painstakingly sharpened up to the 30k stones so the edges look better than good now that they are in shadowboxes on display in my home office. After that they get used to maintain my straight razor and to polish the nib on fountain pens since the 30k stone does the best job I've ever seen for that purpose.

[@SharpeningSupplies]

@@SevereMkII today I learned about polishing fountain pen nibs.