My first water stone (1200 - 8000 combo)

[HoB]

It is fairly common to use DMT's for flattening waterstones according to the posts i read.

I just unwrapped a Bester 700 and a Naniwa 10,000.

The label on the surface of the Naniwa reads:
"Fine sharpening-taste as natural stone gives"

How profound.

Yeah, a typical internet translation . Language non-withstanding, you've bought my two favorite stones. The Naniwa is quite fragile (soft). I use only trailing strokes on it with very good results. Beautiful feel, you know exactly when you have the right angle (in a trailing stroke), you can really feel the edge. And the Bester 700 stone is a superbe allrounder. I use it with plenty of pressure with back and forth strokes. Only right before I go to a finer grit I go lighter and only trailing for a few alternating strokes. Neither stone dishes appreciably. The Bester is really hard (and that without glazing - amazing) and on the Naniwa you only polish, it doesn't really see "hard" work.