Clay, you mentioned the maintenance needed for ceramic stones. I haven't been doing anything other than hitting them with a bristled brush and some soapy water along with the diamond stones every so often and letting them air dry. Been doing it as much just to clean the metal dust off the whole system as for any other reason.

So what should I be doing? I saw someone mention Barkeepers Friend elsewhere, I have plenty of that on hand.

I haven't tried Barkeeper's Friend yet but I hear it's great. I'd love to know what you find after trying it. I use those big pink erasers to clean the stones for regular maintenance. I've used comet when the eraser is no longer doing the job and I've rubbed them against a medium diamond stone under running water when they've gotten really bad.