It really was very strange for me going from old fashioned novaculite stones (Washita, Turkey and Arkansas) to those new-fangled friable Japanese ones, and a real revelation to find that the edges were so very good and achievable in such a short time. A lot of cabinetmakers got converted by the arrival of the affordable synthetic Japanese stones at that time (mid 90s), in conjunction with the perforated DMT plates for the donkey work, and I'd have stuck with the waterstones if I hadn't found myself in a more frenetic, higher production situation where frequent lapping is inconvenient. They also suffer badly from dust contamination, and by golly, my job is very dusty nowadays. In the controlled environment of the kitchen though, the 6000 stone is a pleasure to use because you get so much feedback from it, to the extent that you can feel what the edge is doing without having to check.
At the risk of taking us off topic, what wetstone grinder do you have Jeltz?