smgunn i absolutely love the finish i get of my arks but i've noticed i get smoother finishes if i go soft hard then black ark compared to going fine extra fine to black ark and takes me longer to get there too,having used arks on my knives since i was an apprentice(many years ago) i notice the edge gets smoother with successive sharpenings,with the polishing of my black i have thought about going finer than 2000 by using diamond or chro ox to maybe 5000 grit,has anyone done this before as i haven't so some ideas will be handy,also i've asked Dan's about getting two sides of a stone highly polished and how fine they could go,not working's a bit of a pain as i have too much time to think how to do things i always thought of but never had the time like my quest for the ultimate edge