Thanks guys for the input so far. Here is a picture of the dark stone side of the hone, first dry then half wet:




A couple of follow up questions:
1) Any advice on "when to slurry, when to thin the slurry, when to lose the slurry"?
2) Is a "rubbing/slurry stone" simply another smaller stone like I already have? I figured the action of honing the blade would create a slurry. Is the idea of a slurry stone to create that slurry before honing? Do you have to do that every time or just the first time?
3) The nicks on the edge of the stone, what should I use to sand them out? Regular sand paper?

Thanks again gents...