I've finally decided to stop slacking and take a stab at testing whether the two sides of my Swaty are the same or different "grits." This came up in the Barber Hone Characteristics thread, and I proposed the following test: I'd set the bevels on two identical Henkels 401's and then give each the same number of laps on my Swaty - one on the front and the other on the back.

I just ran the test. I gave each one 100 strokes, and both were cutting hairs off my leg with the edge about a half inch above the skin. As far as I can tell, cut exactly the same and have tha same visual appearance, and so I am going to call my Swaty a uniform stone.

On another note, after I gave each 401 100 passes on the Swaty, I gave them each 100 passes on my C12K and, though I have not yet tested them, I assume they will pass a shave test. I find this pretty amazing; I went from a 1K to (probably) shave ready with 200 strokes on two stones. Essentially, 100 laps on my Swaty replaced my BBW slurry/diluted/water + coticule progression. Next, I plan on playing around with using my coticule after the Swaty (instead of the C12K) to see what that does.