Most will be familiar with the cheap grades of these, known as jung stones, but there are much better grades available. My local Korean housewares store sells the cheap ones, which aren't terrible but are 20mm and a bit irregular, so I want to convince them to get in one of the better grades. I thought I would go with the #1 jang stones, which have an English page at http://skpaduk.en.ec21.com/JangStone_No ... 47780.html. They're about size 34, averaging 9.4 mm (the colors have a slight thickness difference).

That's sight unseen, so my question is whether anyone has experience with these and if my tentative selection makes sense.

To see the full range, go to the Korean language site at skpaduk.co.kr and click on the third tab. I would especially appreciate any guidance from anyone who can read Korean.

I notice also that the most expensive ones are claimed to be very durable. They're sintered glass/mineral like yunzis, but the jung stones certainly aren't any more durable than standard glass stones, maybe even a bit less since their increased density causes them to hit the ground harder when they're dropped.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Hi Steve, 20 mm is which dimension ? The diameter ?

Yes. The nicer ones are all 22mm.

From the OP's link:

Diameter : black 22mm, white 21.8mm
Thickness : black 9.5mm, white 9.3mm

Those are indeed the ones I'm considering. The cheaper ones are 20mm (and thinner of course; and have only 320 stones to boot)). There are a couple of thinner 22mm ones that may be the same quality as the ones I want, but they are 1 and 2 mm thinner and 9.4mm seems closer to ideal thickness.

There are several other choices that are 10mm and thicker, but there's such a thing as too thick, besides which I need to keep affordability mind.

I'll add that the reason I'm going to all this trouble is because I have a small club where members often ask me about the best place to get equipment, and the local Korean housewares store sells the cheapies (jung stones) for $14. The local game store sells the same ones for $30, so I'm hoping for a proportionate deal from the housewares store for the nicer stones.

Hi Steve, have you had any experience with the ING 10 mm plastic stones ?

Yes, but the set I saw had started to split around the diameter (where the two halves are joined together to enclose the weight)! I'm not a fan of plastic anyway.

I have the #1 Jang stones, and I like them a lot. They have a nice, solid and hefty feel about them. I have a wood floor, and so far none of the stones have chipped or broken. The stones do however have imperfections, and are not 100% uniformly the same shape - some of them do not sit entirely flat on the board. I actually managed to find the post where I shared some pics: it's here.

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Patience, grasshopper.

Thanks so much. That pretty well confirms the choice. Possible the two grades up (Bongwhang at 10.6mm and Gisung at 11.7mm) would be more perfect, but small imperfections don't bother me and besides there's the price point. Re thickness, size 32 yunzi stones (also with small defects, albeit different ones since the manufacturing process differs) seem just about right to me as is even though I have large hands (although longish fingers), and of course there's that price point.

Just to add, Ed, I'm expecting to be able to get the No. 1 jang stones for about the same price as Ing stones, actually less when shipping and handling is accounted for. The same store has perfectly nice plain glass stones for $12.99 and a folding 1/2" MDF board for $9.99, so that's the option for folks looking for a cheap set. It's a housewares store with minimal space for game equipment of any kind, so I can't really think in terms of getting them to expand the selection to more than five items (cheap board and stones, expensive board and stones, wood bowls), although more may become possible if as a result sales improve.

Hi Steve,

I got very lucky with my 10 mm plastic ING set --
after about 10 years of experience with various sets ( glass, Yunzi, cheap flat plastic, etc. ) --
it came full circle: from a US$100+ Japanese glass set, back to the 10 mm ING set for US$20+ ( I prefer my ING set very much! )
I thought my ING set is perfect for our coffee shop club meets twice a week.

( I keep my slate & shell sets strictly for home use. )

For some reason, my ING set has a very nice, smoothly curved ridge ( differentiable ),
whereas another club member's ING set has 'sharp' ridges ( non-differentiable ) -- so I got lucky.

Enjoy.

Interesting. I'll keep my eye peeled for another set to examine since I've only just seen the one with the splitting issue (maybe a consequence of being allowed to get too hot). But for now I just have the one store and wholesale source to work with, so that's that.

One remaining question I have is whether if the price is right I should consider going to the 10.6mm Bongwhang stones rather than the 9.4mm No. 1 jang stones. The Ing stones I saw presumably were also 10mm and they felt fine to play with even though I'm used to thinner stones, and an extra .6mm doesn't sound like too much more, and even compared to the jang stones the Bongwhang stones are not quite 1/16" thicker, maybe also not much. The manufacturer claims that they're higher quality as well, although the difference may be slight. But I have little experience handling thick stones, so it's hard for me to say.

Hi Steve, the same member said the same thing ! He thinks he might have left his ING set in his car too long,
over-exposed to the heat from the sun. Hmmm... The two of you are onto something...

Daal, just now while searching for something else I happened across a thread here in which it's stated that the #2 jang stones were a bit smaller then the size billed. The purchase was some years ago so maybe it's no longer an issue, but would it be possible for you to confirm the dimensions of yours? The usual method seems to be to line up ten of them each way, measure overall and then divide by ten. Just the black ones would be sufficient. TIA.