I read a story I don't know how many years ago documenting the limitations of sharpening edge tools in the UK in times past because of the limitations of the sharpening stones and media that was available to them and how it all changed when different media became available. I think in discussions of the past in threads like this those limitations are either not known or glossed over. I wish I could find it again but I can't remember if it was a magazine, a book or on the net. From memory a lot of the time they put up with what they could achieve and not what they would have liked.
Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening