Something in my process could be amiss, or perhaps I got bad stones.

I checked the density of both stones I got from Natural Whetstone. One was 2.16 and the other 2.22. That puts them both on the soft side of "Soft Arkansas." Interestingly, the more dense of the two seems slightly faster, but it's also more "scratchy." The less dense one is very uniform and polishes more than cuts.

On Jim's recommendation, I picked up a cheap Smith's "Arkansas stone". It's pretty brash, and has a lot of boo-boo's on the face. I'm going to give it a once over on a diamond plate to knock down errant high spots and try that one again. Initial impression, the feedback of the stone is nice, but it feels "harder" against my tools than the ones from Natural Whetstone. Finish was similar to the other two - very slow and not really removing fine India scratches quickly. This may be improved with flattening.

I've got a genuine Norton soft Arkansas on order, so we'll see.

Also in the works is some actual honing oil. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't, but I started on soapy water and moved to "Smith's honing fluid" which is what I can buy locally, but it's water based. Nobody around here sells "Sharpening Oil" anymore, so I'll try a 50/50 mix of baby oil and odorless mineral spirits.