New Stones Needed:

Well I knew this day was coming but NOT this soon. I was expecting this stone to last some what over a year and it didn't even come close to a year. Earlier today I did a honing session and left my stone that you see below in a dish drying rack to drain and air dry. My mom picked the stone up and a corner chipped off when she just simply picked it up. That means that this specific stone has reached its limits in terms of use. There's still a good amount of it left but it won't be long though before I'll simply have to break down and get another stone or 2 and maybe an entire set of stones. So unless I'm doing a touch up on the 8K side, I will NOT be using the 4K side anymore unless I need to: 

In terms of what stones to get, I'm looking at the Arkansas oil stones along with quite a few others. I don't think I'll be getting another Norton stone because it seems like the only synthetic stone they make that lasts is the 8K stone. I'm also more interested in natural stones than synthetics.