Bumping this up again. Thanks again Mark.
I pulled out my water stones (Chosera) last night. I marked them with pencil and used the 1000 WE diamonds. The 400 had significant dishing. Not too bad, but it took more than I expected to flatten it. The 1000 diamonds work fine and the pencil mark trick works perfectly. Even my 10k stones had some dishing, but 3-5 strokes got them flat.
I think I only have 10+ knives sharpened on the Chosera’s , so my advice to the forum is:
– check and flatten your water stones. They dish more quickly than you think
– the 1000 diamonds work well
– the stones work better after flattening, I could feel the 400 was a little more aggressive and all of them felt smoother
– I think you don’t really shorten the life, you are just taking down the end parts that are used much anyway. (stop as soon as you get the pencil marks in the center gone). – My opinion, don’t know if someone has more info.
– when you feel a little stiction you are done or very close to done
I don’t sharpen a much as some of you guys here and was thinking my stones would go years before needing flattening. I am glad I checked.
Also of interest – I scrub my stones about 5 times together before sharpening to make a little slurry, I thought doing this would be enough to keep them flat, not true. Maybe more scrubbing would do it, but obviously I had some dishing.
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