It's true. If a chore doesn't excite me, it's liable to get pushed down on the list of priorities. Flattening stones is one of those things. The overwhelming majority of my sharpening is on CGSW diamond matrix stones. They don't dish much, so that's not a problem. When they get dark, I clean them up with Barkeeper's Friend because that's what the Interwebs tells me to do.
Recently, the performance has been degrading. The stones just haven't been cutting as quickly. One doesn't need to be named De Beer to understand what's happening to the topmost layer of diamonds. They were obviously becoming less sharp than they were previously.
I got out my glass plate and some aluminum oxide powder and went to town. There was an almost negligible amount of dishing, but I kept going until it was completely gone. The result was stones that are noticeably sharper than they were previously. You can feel it with your fingertips or by the way it works on knife blades. They cut much more quickly now. I think stones are not unlike drill bits and lathe tools: Keep them sharp, and you'll do better work more easily. Moving forward, I'll be more proactive on stone maintenance.
Any coarse surface will become smoother if you keep rubbing on it. Think about rock and glaciers. Think about Sharpmaker rods and knife blades. It's inevitable that the rods will become smoother over time. I've never heard of anyone resurfacing their Sharpmaker stones. Is it a common practice I've just overlooked?
