Well, I bought a two sided "Winner" hone the other day for honing my straight. Razor came in first so I honed with my present stuff. Took a great edge, passed the HHT and gave me a "BFS" shave. Didn't pull, either. :D
...Then the "real" hone came in. I lapped it, and noticed it had quite a few specks in the surface, almost like concrete, and was dull white/grey. :dropjaw: I had seen a picture of one before, and it was a very even smooth texture, and bright white fine side. I tried it out. Very poor edge, dull, scratched. It was much worse than my soft Arkansas, and took a while to get my edge back again. (I do use the Ark. in a way that allows for a better edge than most will get, but the edge as sharpened in the normal way was still much better.)
So, did I get a dud? Are some stones like this?:shrug:
Thanks,
Chaz