I finally picked up three of the Lee Valley steel honing plates (until now I was using diamond paste on MDF) and I am VERY VERY happy with these juxtaposed to MDF. The cut on steel is much faster this way.
Curious about something though: The paste now produces a hazy finish on the blades - I use 45 micron, 15 micron and finally 1/2 micron; even the 1/2 micron produces a hazy finish (very sharp though). I still use a bit of the 1/2 micron on MDF for final stropping (it seems to me that the MDF causes the grit to become finer? or perhaps its just helping to burnish in order to produce the mirror finish?) insight on this would be useful.
Anywho, my waterstones have collected more dust and it seems that they will continue to do so.