Not for me, I'll take a fast stone any day. I've had both ends of the spectrum and much prefer a faster coticule. The cutting speed can easily be tempered by bringing the stone surface up even smoother than just using a diamond plate and rubbing stone (up around 2k or so is good), that in addition to the method I outlined in the first post gives great edges. I just don't use slurry with mine so they stay nice and polished. I always have the alternative though if I want it - can't say the same for the slow stones. The key is having a fast, fine coticule. For example, even a Suehiro 20k will leave swarf in very few laps.