Well, I broke down and got a three-inch Norton 4/8k, which is a beast compared with the Japanese waterstones I'd been trying to learn with.

It seems like my technique on the 4k side is OK. I'm using X-strokes with light pressure, and when I look at the edge under 60x magnification, it's straight and the scratch pattern look uniform.

Then I go to the 8k side. When I start the X-patterns I can feel the edge catch on little pieces of grit or something. After about 20 laps like this, the edge looks a lot worse, with many, many little micro chips. (I'm not doing pyramids at this point because I have to use a lot of laps on the 4k side to fix the chips the 8k side is creating.)

I've lapped the stone on 400 and 2000 grit sandpaper. I also made sure I'm using it on a lint-free surface, after theorizing that the stone was picking up dirt from the terrycloth towel I was putting it on.

What's going on here? I feel like I'm making progress, except for this problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Josh