How an axe is really supposed to be sharpened!

[Square_peg]

The hand cranks are by no means outdated just super impractical when you employ it for axe work. Get rid of those attached tool rests and construct a sturdy one of wood you can clamp to the bench top at adjustable angles and you have got yourself a great way to sharpen chisel and plane blades.

Still, the water-cooled, low rpm, free standing, hands-free models have won me over to their side.

That's still a good looking stone even as worn as it is. It looks a bit small for its basin and has narrowed at 8:00 compared to 12:00.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

It was a great stone, a Benthiemer, but as stones go, eventually the bulk of it gets reduced to sludge at the bottom of the trough, which makes a nice polishing paste by the way, and you change it out.
https://archive.org/details/P2140411_201802wetgrinding

Since Benthiemers are difficult to find I got this unnamed sandstone, quarried out in the east of Duitsland. It's ok, more difficult to maintain its shapely form, but it should last some years going. In the beginning the clearance at the edge of the trough was small, even after truing, so lots of splash but it gets better with use.