Excellent point. You know your stuff, Sticky! It makes perfect sense that a flat hone will give a much faster sharpening job for the simple fact that.....more of the blade is in contact with more of the abrasive!
A Shapton rep I spoke with today did nothing for me other than pour gasoline on my HAD (and a disorder it is!) by answering all my questions and making me ga ga over the diamond on glass plate flat within .5 micron across its surface. Shame on him!!! He painted a good visual: If the abrasive on a specific hone is .5 micron and the variance across the surface of the hone is .5 micron, then on a pass, the edge will be in contact with only 50% of the abrasive. I'm not quoting him directly and I may have skewed his explanation; hopefully not. His point was think of the difference between .5 micron variance and .001" variance.
I admit, our discussions here and others like it are over analyzing this issue to an absurd degree. I'm not saying HAD is good, maybe HAD is bad. I have HAD.
I was thinking about the following as a possibility for me:.........Sell off the DMT 325, 1200 and my Norton 4000/8000 and go with the Shapton Diamond on Glass lapping plate (replaces the DMT 325), getting a Shapton ceramic on glass 1000 grit (replaces the DMT 1200) and run with that setup along with my belgian blue and yellow coticule.:hmmm:
Maybe someone can offer me counsel, give me a few slaps on the face and tell me to snap out of it. Please someone, help alleviate my HAD!:D:(:confused: