Howard,
You'll not get any argument from me about the amazing consistency of the Shapton hones, nor about their ability to remove steel quickly and efficiently and the grit consistency leaves remarkably smooth and even scratch patterns on tools sharpened on them. They are without a doubt the new thoroughbreds in the sharpening game. That said, lets not loose sight that these hones were designed for sharpening hand tools and not razors specifically and so the treatment they are meant to receive will be quite a bit harsher than what us straight razor honers could muster (well, unless we're really going at it with a 12/8 wedge I suppose). Razor honing was simply an afterthought by those with a rather severe case of HAD and who had money to burn...... guys like me I guess. :D
As for the GDLP, I'm still trying to figure out just how the fact that Shapton has coated the grooves with diamonds has any bearing on how well it works for flattening hones... seems to me it would only serve to increase the cost of the GDLP as those diamonds are completely useless to the user. As for the increased flatness the GDLP is supposed to achieve, I'm sure it can make a slight difference when honing a 1/2" deep and 2" wide bevel such as done when sharpening a Japanese plane blade but if one does the math, that accuracy is wasted on the minuscule bevel of a straight razor, never mind the fact that the flattening results depend in large part on a given operators skill in using a lapping system, rather than the actual tool used.
The stone holder and stone pond look wonderful but frankly I don't see how it can have an effect on the efficiency of the hone, but rather only the convenience to the user. My $13 stone holder holds the glass hones very securely and my honing bench is such that I can clean it with a hose if I wish so containing the swarf and cleaning water is of no consequence to *me*. Previous videos of Harrelson using the Shapton Pro stones showed a similar ingenuity, in holding the stones and dealing with their swarf/slurry etc. This does not mean I don't think the Shapton sourced holders and stone pond are not suitable, they are just not *required* to make full use of the hones and personally I'll chose to use my limited funds elsewhere and I'd like to point out that other need not feel they HAVE to have these things or else the hones won't work well for them. Ditto for the GDLP if they aren't working those huge bevels on traditional Japanese hand planes and the like. And I'm still unconvinced of the superiority of the GDLP over a DMT for flattening hones for the purpose of sharpening razors or for that matter most European style hand tools where the bevels are mostly smaller unless we're talking chisels where Japanese and Euro styles are very similar in the bevel size for a given width of chisel.
For those who have read this far, it is not my intention in any way, shape or form to discourage anyone from buying a GDLP (pending Chris L's resolution of course), a Shapton stone pond or stone holder etc. from either Howard's site or anyone else's as they are top notch gear. However, if you are one of us who are somewhat limited in how much you can spend on this hobby, I would humbly suggest you spend your limited funds on quality hones first and feel comfortable that you'll still get excellent results without the not exactly cheap extras. You may have to find a substitute for that stone pond, maybe settle for a less expensive stone holder and rely on that DMT 325 grit to flatten your hones but you'll still be shaving in style! For what it's worth, I'd have all those toys if only my pockets were a bit deeper. So until I win the lottery, I'll keep using what I have and I know I'm shaving just as comfortably as the next guy who does have all the extras.
Regards
Kaptain "Trying not to be a spendthrift..... yeah right...<sigh>" Zero
PS. I got a wicked nice edge on my A2 block plane blade the other day, using the Shapton glass hones... they cut that A2 steel like it was made from butter!