Phaedrus, I must admit my jaw is dropping in amazement as I read your post. I know you are deeply into knives and sharpening, which makes sense for a pro chef, but spending $200 on a sharpening stone - why you could get a good climbing rope for that price!

I suppose it is a case of different strokes for different folks. Your post makes me think I must learn more about belt sanders. Oneof the things I do during my "July in south Dakota" every year is sharpen tools for our diggers (at considerably less than $20 an inch). They dull very quickly digging in the dirt and it sounds like I could do a quicker job even better than with the fairly coarse grinding wheel currently employed.