>>1652587I use a Norton india combo stone (Western grits 120/320), usually just the 320 side, then a soft arkansas, hard arkansas, and 'surgical' black arkansas (I'd give grit measurements but ark stones are measured by density and there's really not an accurate correlation that I'm aware of).
If I can only have 1 stone it'd be the Norton india combo stone, believe it or not you can produce some insane edges on it, and the whole stigma about oilstones being slow is kinda bs, especially considering flattening time, soaking, etc for waterstones.
Also, note that you can skip the hard ark, and go straight to the black stone if you want, and Natural Whetstones makes a soft/black combo stone. I had one and it was awesome, and the soft side was better than my current soft ark, but I dropped it and lost a corner so I gave it to a friend, because I sharpen alot of plane blades and need the full width and length of the stone. Btw all my stones are 6"x2" since I couldn't afford 8" stones at the time, and honestly I think 6" is fine, especially if you're just sharpening knives. All my natural ark stones are RH Preyda, you can get the set of 3 from woodcraft for $35 and its a good deal. One thing to note is that all the stones will feel more aggressive when you first get them and will settle down some, no matter the brand. So if your black arkansas is producing a shit edge at first, it'll wear in and get much finer, after you sharpen on it about 30x it'll be much finer than you started with. This goes with all the stones, but is more noticable on the finer stones. One more thing, you can make your own honing oil by mixing 50/50 mineral spirits and mineral oil. Finally, some people say oilstones are messy but those are the same people with rusty tools... Hmmm
