soft vs medium vs hard waterstone?

[DavidL41]

What difference instead of feel do you get from different hardness of waterstones?

Soft vs hard vs medium hardness stone? Which stone gives a toothier edge or polished edge at 6k.

Binders or manufacturing process make any difference? Regular waterstone, ceramic, natural, diamond waterstone on a easy to sharpen steel like white steel what type of edge does a stone of each type at 6000 grit create?

For a softer water stone like the 6000 king stone or a harder stone like a ceramic sigma select II (I think) 6000 or Shapton pro/ glass 6k what are the difference in edge on white steel or blue.

 

[Jason B.]

Things like abrasive type and amount of abrasive in the stone will have more effect on the edge than the hardness of the stone.

Harder stones are typically used for things that need to be very flat, like chisels, straight razors, and plane blades. The harder stone makes a more precise bevel, that's it.

The common rule is to use softer stones for your knives and harder stones for your tools. It's not anymore complicated than that.

That said, I like harder stones like the Shapton Pro or Naniwa Professional (Chosera) because they provide faster cutting due to higher abrasive content and more precise bevels due to the hardness of the stone.