Utopian,

Interesting, I wonder if they did start just giving the hones a fine grit coating at some time. You say you had one that lapped out? Did it have the same weird inclusions?

-No worries, that would take it's toll on me, too.

SprooseMoose,

Yep, I call it the Loser Hone.

Jimmy,

Odd that they decompose over time. This is not that though, oddly enough it seems it was made this way, as the inclusions are a part of the hone but the rest seems fine.

That's a weird one Russ. Had to be a bad feeling taking it out of the box and finding that out!

Piet,

I have so far been bevel setting on a soft Arkansas and honing with Simichrome polish on paper and then going to plain newspaper, then a cotton belt, then a leather belt strop. It's sadly not a coarse stone, just a fine one with large chunks of something that make it cut like a razor hone and finish like a chunk of fill gravel (with a very non-uniform scratch pattern), not a good combination! (Especially since I have found a trick that lets me get a mirror polish edge with a soft Arkansas!) I am saving up for an eBay Coticule and I am about to get some green honing compound. You got lucky if you found an Escher in an old Carborundum box!

"...Hey! I got an Escher!...."
"...I got a rock..."

Thanks again everyone,
Chaz

(Yes I know that the Escher is a rock, but that Charlie Brown line was just too tempting. )