Glad to hear it has been working hard for you.
A tip, if I may?
Take two river stones and a few drops of water and rub the stones together to create a slurry and see if that helps. The slurry will be made up of very fine silicates and this will do the cutting, not a small contact area on the stone face.
You can even use a flattened surface of a piece of wood to some affect if the stone doesn't work as well.
I hear ya.
I've got multiple sharpening setups; I was just using the river stone a'la "Murray Carter" (or Rambo, if you prefer), and the blade didn't even really need it.
I'm thinking a BK9 may be arriving for a Christmas present to myself...