There are many methods and many kinds of gubbins for shaping, sharpening and honing gouges and other complex sharp-edged tools. I’d like to hear recommendations, inclusive of advantages and drawbacks, for all of them.

Slip stones of various Arkansas stone grades or “reinforced” waterstone stuff seem popular, 1000/4000/8000 being the usual grades offered.

Single stones with multiple profiles also seem to be available, rather like the Flexcut slipstrop item but scaled up and made of that reinforced waterstone stuff.

Then there are DMT diamond-coated cones of 600 & 1200 grit having continuously variable-radius valleys and mounds.

I have a Sorby ProEdge flat-belt grinder with a gouge guide that’ll do reshaping and probably the sharpening of convex curves But I presume I need something to shape and sharpen concave profiles …. ?

I use leather-covered wooden strops covered in DMT diamond paste (1, 3 and 6 micron) for honing. I can easily make more with different convex and concave radii if the carving tools I acquire need them.

Any advice, especially that from experience, will be gratefully received. I don’t want to go down yet another rabbit hole of never-ending trials of various expensive sharpening gubbins!  🙂