Quote Originally Posted by gssixgun View Post
Stones seems to always fall one of two ways Natural or Synthetic....

Natural fans have a wee bit of romance about their stones, no offense but you guys do

Us synthetic users are more about outright performance,,,

Natural Guy "Oh it is so smooth"
Synthetic Guy "Oh it is so sharp"

Natural Guy " It takes 100 laps, as light as a feathers touch"
Synthetic Guy "20 laps and I am done"

Natural Guy "Well if you want the most out of yer stone you have to learn about raising a slurry"
Synthetic Guy "What's a slurry"???


Natural Guy "Well my stone gives a great finish, yours must have been mined 100 feet higher"
Synthetic Guy "They are all the same, just do 20 light laps and yer done"


Natural Guy "I spent $300 on a chunk -o-rock
Synthetic Guy " I spent $300 on an entire honing system"

Small differences out there....

From reading your post I would recommend for you the Norton Starter set 220/1000 - 4k/8k and the lapping stone for $120 on Amazon this covers everything you might throw at it...

Then get the Shapton Sweet 16 from SRD for $94 and you are set for stones

I would recommend the DMT 325 for lapping all of these BTW.....

That would outfit you for about $250 including shipping....

I know this system works, I used it for about a year before I bought the full set of Shapton's

The other nice option out there is the Naniwa Super Stones Lynn isn't kidding, they do work slick as snot...
You could get the 1k-5k-8k-12k with the 325 DMT and be set for life....

Just giving you the other side of the coin....
If I didnt know better, Id have to think you were making fun of us!
Other than my DMT for bevel setting, everything else is natural.