Quote Originally Posted by Marshal View Post

I also wonder about oil vs water removing the same amount of stone over the course of it's life - at least with respect to Arkansas stones. There's an appreciable difference in how fast they burnish with water VS oil. I can count the number of razors I sharpened with water before I noticed the stones visually glazing and slowing up, this has not happened with the ones I've been using with oil (I'm actually hoping the small translucent Arkie will burnish as that would be beneficial for a finishing stone). They're also surprisingly homogenous, %99.9 silica. It's not the usual sedimentary rock that you see used as a hone most anywhere else.
This has been my experience also. The difference was appreciable. I really wanted the water to work long term but I just couldn't get around how quickly it gunked up and stopped cutting.