Quote Originally Posted by Sticky View Post
Anything rated coarser than 1,000? I wouldn't even try to make a list of all available hones coarser than 1,000. I think Bart's chart would also be useful, but going into that much detail is difficult when the data is so subjective. I think that very level of detail is why so few questionnaires were returned... If you make the chart too detailed then many new users might refuse to even read the chart legend. Having just a "smoothness" scale is going to be difficult because such a scale (read unit-of-measure) doesn't exist, as far as I know. [e.g.: electrical resistance has Ohms. Smoothness, outside of a surface tester's units...difficult to impossible to relate to shaving smoothness anyway.] Then there's also the question of "Sharpness vs. Smoothness".
True. But maybe we are approaching the problem from different directions. I never thought the list should be exhaustive and collective. I was thinking of new users looking for a useful combination of hones, and an explanation of their respective uses. There appears to be a number of such combinations (i.e. Norton 4/8k + finisher, or Belgian blue/yellow).

We can, of course, kill this discussion by simply going into too much detail. No problem with that. After all, the chart was just an idea. However, the questions will remain the same, and the amount of spurious, superfluous, and contradicting information in the forum will grow even further. I wonder whether that is useful.

Quote Originally Posted by Sticky View Post
The progressive guide in your link is the wiki version, I don't maintain that one; never did.

Quote Originally Posted by Sticky View Post
In the original guide posting, including the very first version (it's now at v2.1), you will find specific hones mentioned alongside their recommended uses (near the end of the thread's first post, under the "//Hone Specifics" category). I made the decision to keep the usage recommendations broad because so much of it has a high degree of broad overlap. The list I made is way too short to serve as a substitute for a chart on the scale that we're talking about here. Especially so since I make no attempt to include such high level of detail. I'd rather see the chart.
As you may remember, I sent you a notification of your guide being transferred (for lack of a better word) to the Wiki. Unfortunately, I never received a direct response. If you are unhappy with your post being in the Wiki, just let me know, and it will be killed as quickly as heavyduty's - no problem whatsoever. One idea behind the Wiki is to collect knowledge that is scattered across the forums, and compile it into one easily accessible article. Not least because an article can be maintained - unlike a forum post, which cannot be edited by mere mortals after, I believe, 24 hours. I can see only advantages in this approach, but am open to counter arguments.

Quote Originally Posted by Sticky View Post
"what hone(s) do I need" sounds like a good thing to have, to me; as does a list of hones that might fit. I'm just saying that attempting to pin each hone down to very specific purposes having such high detail level is going to be rather difficult. If the questionnaire was simplified and (maybe) not put in excel format, you might get more replies. Obviously, no one owns all the hones that might be put into the chart (except maybe Randy...); so responses to questionnaires are pretty much needed.
I cannot quite see why Excel should be a problem, but I am sure Bart could provide an RTF file with a simple table in it, too...

Quote Originally Posted by Sticky View Post
The only other option is to go by hearsay and existing posts. Another option that might get more responses is to start a thread that has multiple choice answers in a poll. (I am assuming that a poll thread would allow the needed number of questions and reply choices.)

If the questionnaire/poll gets simplified, I'll fill one out regarding the hones I've tried.
Incidentally, I had thought about the same thing. Can we do multiple questions in one post?

I really thought this would be simpler, by the way...