Neil: Thanks for the additional input...I would also call this stone an 'intermediate finisher', much along the lines of my TOS. I think I will break out a couple of more razors to be honed and do a comparison between this stone and my TOS just to see what that tells me, and I'll finish them on the LI. I'll report what I find out...

Thanks also to you Piet for your thoughts as well. As far as porosity being a factor in DB's Piet, I can tell you that this hone is lapped very smooth ( to 400 grit paper ) and it is not porous at all. About the same as my TOS as far as that goes. It does absorb water, but not very quickly. The water seems to evaporate/absorb slowly rather than 'soak in'.