I have been using Smiths for quite some time on my Trans. and Blacks. I am now following suite with the dilution and water only on my maintenance work, and I also used this method the last time I honed on the large bench stones. I have to say, the feedback from my smaller 2x8x1/2 maintenance Ark is very different than either my Trans. or my Black bench stones (which are similar to each other at first blush) when honing on water only. The small maintenance Black never gets to the point where it "sticks", as you call it, with water only. Water also tends to bead up on this stone compared to the larger bench stones as well. I went about 6 months doing maintenance honing with that stone using lather. I wonder if the un-saponified oil in the lather has soaked into the honing surface of that stone?