Pink speckled Sigma 6000 stone is awesome.

[Jessica de Boer]

I love how soft and smooth is feels and I like it better than the Select II 6000. And I found that the best way to get the maximum performance out of it is to treat it like a natural stone. I wet the surface and make a slurry on it with my Tsushima nagura. I don't keep it overly wet after that but I add a few drops when it needs it so the slurry stays rather thick and creamy. This produces a very good edge. Oh, and I store it in water because this prevents it from loading up. This is without a doubt the best synthetic stone I have ever used.

[Tom M King]

One of my favorite stones too. It's where I start when an edge just needs touching up, like in the middle of a long planing session. I never bother with making a slurry though. My waterstones just get placed under a small stream of running water. It only gets used for maybe 10 seconds max, which includes getting it out of the rack on the drainboard, and putting it back.

[David Eisenhauer]

I also have and like that stone but have never tried it with any slurry other than that which it creates on its own. I have some type of a slurry creating stone that I used with my older King Waterstones, but do not remember which particular designation it has. Like Tom, this is the stone I use to start a quick touchup on an edge that has not gone completely dull. I soak all three of my Sigma stones (1000#, 6000#, 13000#) for at least 10 minutes before using and then just spritz them as needed. The 6000# speckled stone works well and quickly when starting to polish an edge.

[Jessica de Boer]

I found that making a slurry helps it to cut A2 and PM-V11 steel.

[Tom M King]

I only have a couple of irons with those steels. Most of the woods I work do fine with my preference of 01. Mine don't get any kind of soaking, other than under the little stream of water, so I guess the part that gets used gets soaked good enough. They come out of the rack on the sink dry, go under the stream, and back in the rack after use. I forget how many years I've been using water stones like this.

I probably should note that I'm in a part of the country, on a lake on a river, where water runs out of the ground every few hundred yards, and electricity is generated by water running down the river. Water comes out of deep wells with no treatment required, that even though in granite, are part of the whole water system (for those worrying about "wasting" water).

[Howard Pollack]

Would you tell us where you purchased that stone? Thank you. -Howard

[Tom M King]

Mine came from Tools from Japan. The owner, and sole operator, has done a lot of research on sharpening stones, and shared it freely. It's a one man show, in Japan.

Communication will not be what you expect from companies here, and shipping will take much longer than getting something off Amazon. I like dealing with him though, in spite of those things, and will continue to support his efforts. When he first started offering the Sigma Power stones (different than the more common Select II's), I don't think anyone else was, outside of Japan.

[Jessica de Boer]

Would you tell us where you purchased that stone? Thank you. -Howard

My dad's old co-worker in Japan bought it for me from a shop called Noborihamono.
http://noborihamono.com/index.htm