Originally Posted by
Iceni
Loading the stone is different to burnishing.
A loaded stone is full of swarf and old oil, The surface of the hone is dirty, and while the dirt may make the hone act smoother the finish is softer, and not the stone.
Burnishing is the breaking down of the grit on the stone, You are physically grinding the grit, grinding off the high spots and making the actual rock one continuous high polish surface. The finish is much harder, And because the rock itself has filled most of the voids water can be used rather than oil. It's not common with stones because in order to burnish a stone the correct binder and grit conditions need to be present. The rock needs to be hard, the grit needs to be hard, and the binder needs to be holding everything solidly so no grit comes loose at all when honing. When all those 3 happen you can take a rock that is 1000 grit and polish it. It's this polish we refer to a burnish. And the finish from such a stone is what level of polish you can impart. A burnished stone can be cleaned fully, and will have no dirt on it, whist still been polished.
Softer arks do shed grit, and this is why soft arks are never burnished because the grit been lost means it's a fruitless task to even attempt to burnish them.
To say burnishing is a myth is frankly wrong, there is photographic proof of burnishing, and most people who have a finishing ark have at some point burnished one. For anything other than a razor however the burnish would be undesirable. Knives do not benefit from a 10k+ edge, or the massive speed drop from trying to use a burnished stone. Knives however are not razors.