Originally Posted by
majurey
Yes, that had me scratching my head too, because I've since tried it again twice and both times the lather mix on the hone goes visibly grey!
It must be a trick of the light. Because everything else (including the final polished edge) says the soap makes the honing less aggressive. I think with water only it's more difficult to see any metal mixed in, but once you have a little opacity (such as lather suds) you notice the clean white lather changing grey much more than you would see swarf in water-only.
That's the only reasonable conclusion I can come to. :shrug: