David Weaver
$1 flea market fine india - dirty, but still flat (machinists seem to use india stones here until they load and then throw them away, or at least did in the old days and the float around the flea markets with shaped stones, etc).

In reality, this stone came from a bag full of hard arkansas slips from a machinist and the slips were worth about $100, the bag was $20, and this stuff is just freebies, but there's a guy here who sells india stones for $1 to $2 (he never has good natural stones - I think he keeps those and sells them elsewhere).

I used about 18 inches of PSA 80 grit roll on a piece of scrap wood that "looks" flat, and that I'd used previously just to see if an older can of paint would dry in good time (that's about 60 cents worth of 4" wide psa roll)

And a white buffing bar that I bought years ago branded "craftsman" that I got on a clearance rack at sears (it was either a dollar or two for a dollar - I got green, too). I used it on cherry without smoothing the board - all I did was find a twisty offcut and card scrape the surface to remove any possible metal/dirt and then used it right on the otherwise rough twisty surface.

I didn't use a buffer as the principles of this are the same, but I saw people complain about not wanting a grinder or a buffer (which I think is an issue of a nickel holding up a dime, but some people would rather be consistent than smart).

Cherry shaving from this high-toned system:

(it was obligatory to use the $2.99 buck iron with this, of course - we don't want to go upmarket).

And a picture of the edge under the scope.