david weaver
I only like small diamonds on it, like 0.25 micron powder, which works pretty well in combination with a glazed stone.

As you get the surface of the thing to wear in, you'll notice that if you wipe the swarf off each time, you'll get a glassy surface without the typical discoloration that you get if you abrade the surface and then use the stone.

My stone is almost white again, but the surface is reflective. It is hardly cutting by itself, and I remove any particles from it if I'm actually going to fool around with chasing an edge with it. It cuts so slow that it no longer takes those black tire marks that it quickly loads with when the surface has been refreshed.

it fits right in the context of yesterdays bits about whether we are burnishing the edge, etc.

But at that point when there aren't metal particles on it, but it is shiny and clear on top, that's when it does extraordinary things to edges that are nearly finished already. And it's easier to see what it's doing when the surface has returned closer to clear.

At that point, the diamonds don't seem to stick around in the surface long, because if you wipe them off, it will cut very very little, unlike steel where what's left in the steel keeps cutting and cutting.