Quote Originally Posted by JimmyHAD View Post
Something that occurred to me as to the water beading up, is that since a Swaty is made of the same ceramic type of stuff as a Spyderco it would probably respond well to being scrubbed with a cleanser such as Comet and a bristle brush. That is what Spyderco recommends for their hones when they load up. I'm going to try that with mine.
Question for you, Slant-man:
I've got the Spyderco Fine and Ultra Fine. Since the consensus seems to be that the Swaty is about the same as the UF, why would I want to have a Swaty? When the chrome oxide strop doesn't get it quite as sharp as I want, then 10 passes or so on the UF followed by a few on the chrome oxide seems to work really well for me.

I do have an antique hone (original cost $1.00 on the box) which looks like a Swaty, but is marked "Swatstein" on the end. Haven't really tried it yet, although I've spent some time flattening it with an 800 grit stone.