I am looking into buying some stones.
Shell are to expensive.
I do not like Yunzi stones.

So I have been looking into Glass stones.
Have found a vendor I wanna buy from.
However I'm not sure if I should go for 10mm(Size 36) or 11mm(Size ?39?) stones.

Have read that everything over 10mm is quite hard to place efficiently on the board.
Is there any reason not to go for 11mm when the price between 10mm and 11mm are close to nothing?

- Ares

I think you answered your own question. Personally, I find my 9mm slate & shell quite thick enough.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Thanks for your answer.
I have only used 7mm stones at my Go club, and have no experience with thicker stones.
However if people generally like the look of 11mm over 10mm, and the handling of the stone is fairly similar I think I would go with 11mm. Tho if people like 10mm I would go for that instead.

Seeing as I have no experience with thicker stones I taught it would be better to go with the majority.

The thick stones are really suited for floor boards rather than table boards. They are too noisy on thinner boards. When I bought my nice table board 30 years ago here in Tokyo the nice little old lady that waited on me insisted on selling me 32's instead of the 36's that I wanted. She was right (but of course she knew she was at the time, that's why she insisted). Some years later I bought a floor board and the thicker stones to go with it. However, even there she was right because I simply find it easier to handle the thinner stones and prefer them on any of my boards.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

My impression is also that stone size preferences have gotten thicker with time. I gather that if you look at Japanese sets from the 19th century, even 9mm stones were pretty thick. If you've ever played with Ing stones, also, those are 10mm thick, for comparison.

My first experience was with club stones -- 8mm glass
as well as some thinner stones, 7mm and thinner (glass and slate/shell).

Then at my first Go Congress, I was introduced to 10mm plastic Ing stones. I didn't like them. I thought they were too think. But over the years, I've actually like them a lot more than I used to. I don't think I'd like anything thicker though. I don't want the marbles rolling off my board after I place them.

Some friends have 9mm slate/shell stones. Those are really nice, and might be my favorite size. Though I only own 8mm glass and 10mm Ing stones myself.

I don't care for the flat Yunzi stones. Flat or not, I don't really like the feel of them anyway.

But its all so very personal.

But what I really hate, is when all the different sizes and types are mixed in together in the bowls. You never know what you're going to get. And its so weird seeing a 6mm stone sitting next to an 11mm stone on the board and the rest are somewhere in between. And some are smaller diameter, and some are larger. Welcome to using club equipment.

Thank you for your replay.

I ordered 11mm glass stone. Glass stones are relative cheap, and I want to try everything either way.
Just played in a tournament where flat stones where mixed with non-flat stones. So ugly.
Also for some reason people liked to put the flat stones on their head. Also so ugly.

Hi Ares, please post updates of your experiences
after the new 11mm stones arrive and you start to use them.
Close-up photos from various angles a bonus, for us.

I have had experience with all the different stones and sizes
mentioned so far in this thread, and I have my preferences of course,
but I'm curious about yours.

First question: when your new 11mm stones arrive, how uniform are they ?
Were they made from a very uniform mold,
or are they of all slightly different shapes,
thicknesses, and sizes ? Do they wobble exactly uniformly,
or are some of them lob-sided ? (I actually have no idea
how they make glass stones. But curious about it. )

Also, Japanese or Korean glass stones ? Which brand ?

I will!
Only know that they are from Skin Kwang Baduk which seems to be a Korean company?
Dunno what my personal preference will be, but for some reason I'm already addicted to big stones
just from watching videos of them. Size 36+. So even before looking I went straight for the Size 36+.

Will try to take some pictures, but will most likely be at least a week.

That would be my guess, too.

My favorite shell stones size is 38 ( 10.7mm ),
and my favorite coffee shop set is the weighted ING 10mm stones.

Shin Kwang is indeed a Korean company:

http://www.skpaduk.co.kr/

I just got a set of their 10.6 mm glass stones this week. I think they are branded as "Phoenix." Shin Kwang's largest size appears to be 11.7 mm. I bought the 10.6 mm after reading about EdLee's preference for Size 38 shell & slate stones in another thread, although I know he is not very fond of glass. I am a beginner and not ready to pay for Size 38 shall & slate, although I did just purchase a Size 28 Suwabate set from Erythen. It is the first set in this post:

viewtopic.php?p=168865#p168865

I also have a well-used set of weighted plastic stones in 10 mm (so I'm guessing Ing) a friend gave me. I don't own a Yunzi set but the same friend does (single convex). I liked them and will eventually order a set.

Being brand new to Go, my opinion probably does not contribute much but for what it's worth I initially did not like the glass stones very much because the texture of the white stones felt very brittle and harsh even considering they look very polished. The stones seem pretty uniform, however. I am starting to like them a bit better after using them to play a ton of capture go against myself.

The suwabate stones from Erythen are really beautiful in person. I do like the thicker stones but these are so nice to look at on the board. In fact, I think they really make my YMI shinkaya board look shabby by comparison. So I will have to start researching a better board. One purchase leads to another, the cycle of consumer life.

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The Master said, To stuff oneself with food all day without worrying about anything, is difficult indeed! But what about weiqi players then? It is better to be one of them than to do nothing!

If this is your first set of interesting stones, buy what you can afford (or want to spend) and try not to get hung up on the details. You will eventually have more stones and you can trade with other players.

Glass, shell, yunzi, ceramic, plastic--they all have their attributes and they are all appropriate to possibly specific playing situations. But that's all in your mind. Go is go whether you play it with M&Ms or priceless antique shell and slate. Stones, bowls and board really do not matter.

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

Just got my stones.
Size ?39? 11mm x 22mm Korean glass stones.

I find it hard to answer all the questions.
I havn't used them much, tho they did arrive earlier today.

I'm not 100% sure, but they do for sure not seem 100% uniform.
Might be possible to see in the pictures as well.

I'm also finding the black stones a little "dirty".
Which is of course something which is easy to fix.
I tried to wash them, but the textile from my towels
stick to the wet stones so easily when drying.

Not sure about the wobbling.

The bowls are the cheapest bamboo bowls I found, quite large bowls.
Payed around ~40 euro for the stones, and ~19 euro for the bowls.

Believe I got 183 white stones.
And 182 black stones.
No stones arrived chipped.

Had no difficulty with handling the stones.

If anyone want pictures from a specific angle, please tell me,
and I will take more pictures.

Some pictures:

Hi Ares, Congrats. They look very thick and nice!
Yes, usually the new black glass stones have a thin film
of oily substance — must be from the manufacturing process.

Just immerse all the stones in clean water with a little
soap or detergent, rinse and repeat with clean water,
and they will come out very clean.

You can dry them with a soft cotton or micro fiber towel.
A hair dryer can speed up the drying time.

Thanks.
Tried washing with water and some soap.
Guess I have to do it a few more times if I wish to get them really clean.

They are glass. Your dishwasher should work fine. Mine does on my glass stones.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Seriously. I don't have the nerve to treat my shell stones that way but really glass is ... glass! They get scratched a lot more by sitting in the bowls together than they ever do by being washed. Of course my glass stones have be rattling around in the bowls for 30+ years so maybe my POV is a little bit skewed, but there it is!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Oily film?

You shouldn't need a dishwasher for this and rare to find a dishwasher that gets dishes as clean as the old fashioned way.

Obtain some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). This will act as a weak base. Make up a paste of the baking soda, wet the stones, and put them into the paste so they are completely covered with at least a thin layer. Let sit moist a few hours.

The sodium bicarbonate should react with the oils converting them so that one end of those molecules will accept water. Now try washing off.

It is possible your soap/detergent was far weaker than needed for the job. But if you don't have the baking soda on hand. Your first retry could be the detergent again used a bit differently. Smear it all over the stones (like I described for the baking soda) and again let that sit for a few hours and then try washing with water.

Anyone know how these compare with the glass stones offered by GGG?



Interesting. Score 2 for the nice little old lady from Tokyo.

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"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"