Where do you stand? I am in the balderdash camp.
Merit, I meant honing trend with little merit!From the perspective of a begginer/intermediate such as myself pyramid honing looks like a by gone honing trend with little meet it to me IMHO.
I thought you were trying to type "little feet"Merit, I meant honing trend with little merit!
I'm sort of "meh" on the subject. A strict progression sort of implies factory-style synths from the same manufacturer, and from the same series, whereas a mix-and-match approach, especially involving both synths and naturals as arbitrarily graded, can lead to inadvertent "pyramids" depending on grit ratings that vary as a result. Or sticking with a commonly recommended synth progression, take Norton water-stone 4000/8000 to Naniwa 12k for instance, rather than JIS 4k/8k.
One case in favor of the so-called pyramid might be a black hard Arkansas. Used as part of a conventional oil-stone progression, it ends up in the early finishing range. But used to temper a harsh edge in the final finishing stage, it can improve this edge quite significantly, perhaps leading folks to the conclusion that the grit rating of the black hard Arkansas is far higher than is normally alleged.
Arks were historically considered capable of producing the finest edges possible from any natural stone. I wouldn't put it past them. The problem is they are so hard that they can easily damage an edge and also can't cover up whatsoever for the failings of the steel (softer stones and slurrying stones almost dull/round off the area around where steel fails, making "torn" cutting less noticeable from lower quality steel tools). This also means that at fine angles like we can have on razors, they may not be able to achieve the same level of distinction you'll see on sturdier edges, but with very careful technique and good quality steel, they can make some amazing edges, that I'd stack up against just about anything. Furthermore the standard recommended technique for razors is one that was developed around synthetic whetstones... and doesn't produce anywhere near the best results from Arks. Yes Arks excel at tweaking finished edges, but that's not because they are incapable of reaching those levels or even superior results on their own, only that it requires such high levels of skill, patience, and caution that it generally becomes more effort than it's worth. Whereas finishing on a Thuri or soft Jnat or Coti and then running over an ark afterwards leaves much less room for error and also allows interesting characteristics of the first stone to remain in the edge to some degree.
Where I have to disagree with you is your belief that stones have a progressive trait and a tempering trait.
As such the Arkansas rating is kind of determined by the biggest distributor of them... Norton. Who set it at 8k... mostly because they only make a synthetic up to 8k and they wanted to offer it as a successor/alternative to the hard arkansas that was much less profitable for them. We do tend to think too much in "grit", when traditionally the thinking followed more of a "progression" mentality; and hard Arkansas were the final stone in virtually every ultra-refinement progression imaginable. I don't believe they were EVER followed by another hone... logically because none could improve on their edge. As far as I know the only improvement beyond an arkansas was through stropping. The distinction is that Arkansas don't respond to minimal pressure the way traditional synthetics do... so most people practiced with razors and synthetics aren't prepared to properly use an Arkansas.
Slice is right about the clogging. The fast cutting synthetics (which are my favorites hones) will load very quickly. I lap my hones at the start of every honing session. Lapping just takes a few seconds, but saves me lots of time on the stone and improves results. When I hear about people getting a comfortable shave straight off of a Shapton 4K or 8K, I assume that they are coming off of a loaded hone.
It could also be an elaborate scheme to make it impossible for a beginner to get a decent edge thus keeping the need for "Honemeisters" afloat.
I'm going to ask this here as I think it fits:
I have seen where people will use a coti with a heavy slurry and progress to water. They will then restart with a slightly less heavy slurry and progress to water again. They will do this again and again starting with a thinner slurry until they are using strictly water. Is this similar to the pyramid method? If this is fine with Coti then why not other stones? Am I way off base?