Blackstone Silicon Stone questions

[Nevnz]

Hi there - First of all I am new to This Tormek forum but I think it is a great service and I am already finding it very helpful - reading the posts and replies. Thankyou for this.

I am a woodturner and Tormek 2000 owner - it is a very good system. I mostly turn bowls from NZ swamp kauri (wood that has been buried for thousands of years) which can be very abrasive on the gouges so I need to sharpen very often. I find I have a lot of down time in dressing (trueing) the stone, as it very soon has ruts form in the surface when rolling the gouge in the SVD185 jig - mostly where the nose of the gouge contacts the stone. I was considering an after market Diamond wheel but have since found out that they haven't been successful. So I was more than interested to hear of the arrival of the new Tormek Blackstone Silicon stone.

I have looked for reviews or feedback regarding the SB-250 but I guess it is early days yet for that. Have you done any comparison trials with the new SB-250 stone against the original SG-250? Or maybe you have had feedback from owners of the SB-250? How much harder is this new abrasive composition compared to the original? How often would you need to dress (not meaning grading) the stone in comparison - ie - half as many times or a quarter as many times or less? 99% of the tools I sharpen are HSS. Maybe even knowing what the composition of the wheel would help. I would be more than happy if I could cut down the time consuming dressing/trueing of the stone. It would make a very good system become even better! I just want to make certain there will be a significant improvement before I take the plunge and buy the SB-250. I will value any advice regarding this.
Thankyou - Neville