So I got my stones in from David at naturalwhetstone.com and my thought are these benchstones are terrific. Leaps and bounds better than my previous Smith's Tri-hone stones. I received a set of soft, hard and black benchstones all nicely put together in a hardwood box, along with a bottle of "premium" honing oil. While I dont use oil, I appreciate that its included.

Sharpening was done my Dumpster Mutt DC which I used the past couple of days cutting trees down (~4-5" in diameter) and battoning just cause I can <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> The first thing I noticed was that the hard (fine) stone cut a little better than I'm used to and got a very sharp edge back with about 15 strokes per side, probably more than it really needed I was just having fun. Then I moved on to the black and let me tell ya, if you dont have a black stone, get one now! Its amazing how quicky it brought the edge to razor-like in ~10 passes per side. Put it on the strop with green compound and shizam, I dont see how it could be sharper.

So, big A+ to David and his benchstones. I am so glad I stuck with these instead of buying that Sharpmaker I seen at the store last week. I highly recommend these stones OP. You wont be disappointed.

ETA: spelling