You did a masterful job of replying to me Georg!
First let me state that all of my waterstones are at least 10 years old, no combo stones present. I believe that they are Sun King, or Tiger and whatever LV re-brands. Are these stones soft or hard? I hope that you're referring to the bonding agent when you discuss soft/hard.
What I can tell you is that I use a bench grinder for all of my western style blades. I have done this long enough to move very quickly with no burning, rarely do I use water to cool the tooling. I do dress my wheels regularly so they are in optimal condition.
Off the grinder I move to my waterstones. I run up the grits from 800/1200/4000/6000/8000 depending on the intended use of the cutting edge. The stones are soaked and I use a nagura slurry on the finest grits. Once again I move very quickly to a honed edge that is ready for work.
I maintain my waterstones on a granite inspection surface using wet/dry paper. Simple as that. I also use this set up to flatten plane blades and soles - bonus.
This discussion of rubber layers and uniform/non-uniform reduction in the size of abrasive particles is interesting and at an inmeasurable level might have some merit but in reality it is theoretical nit-picking (I love nit-picking myself, it leads to many interesting conversations - I'm throwing no stones!).
As soon as I hear that someone is willing to lap on glass, I think that there are geater problems in their sharpening system that fixed or free abrasive particles.
Most importantly I think, it is essential to maintain your sharpening system more often than not. If you are suspecting that your waterstone is not flat and negatively affecting your sharpening you should have flattened the stone 10 minutes ago! Flattening a waterstone rarely takes me more than a minute. Perhaps you will tell me that my stones are soft as chalk.
Not to beat up Stuart who sells sharpening items but the reality of this whole sharpening business is that a set of stones/grinding wheels etc. will last an avid woodworker many years, if not a life time. This makes for a very difficult business model; either people purchase product because they are trying out a new sharpening system, or they are replacing infrequently worn out, used up components. The only way grow sales significantly is to sell ancilliary products like diamond lapping plates or convince users that the latest stones are impossibly superior to the ones you currently own. This is the one two thrust of marketing.
Some folks have to keep experimenting with their sharpening set ups, others find a system that works and get on with the task of using sharp tooling. For the most part what I have observed is that folks that continually alter their sharpening regimen typically do not sufficiently develop the skill to make their current set up work - the dry bench grinder>Tormex>worksharp progression. Purchases of new equipment are made in the hope of finally being able to sharpen tooling.
I would suggest keeping it simple, tidy and as inexpensive as you can as there are lots of things to spend money on!
As Stuart said: "Good luck with the flattening, and the stones you have."
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