David Weaver
...the manipulation of the stones is on a spectrum. The edge I showed is a very fine edge. It's actually free of the small defects that occur on a clear black stone that I usually don't capture in photos.

I can't say what one person would use better than another, but the feel of the stone in this middle setting was nice, and the edge is honed by the stone on both sides and once the wire edge is removed, the edge is not torn up.

It becomes a good bit harder to get an edge as good across various steel hardnesses once more porous stones are used.

I could advocate for the washita, but the truth is the one I've taken pictures of is one of my finer washitas, and may of the fine ones out there just don't cut that well. It's an example of why buying 10 stones and keeping two may be better than buying two (if one bothers to go through the labor).

The lack of use of natural stones probably has a lot to do with the lack of desire of folks learning to manipulate them. Larry's making planes. I know when I'm making planes or refitting planes, I'm looking for speed (the same reason that I buff the wire edge off of the cap and deburr the front of the cap after filing or heavy grinding - it can be done in 10 or 15 minutes by hand). If larry is finishing his irons by hand or demonstrating a lot in person, then he's going to be biased toward completing the job first and fineness second.

In short, I never scuffed this stone before intentionally and waited after I flattened it for it to slow down. But I kind of liked this!! it's between what I did the first time and my normal MO of letting a stone settle way in to minimize the wire edge.