The SP120 is very much a love/hate relationship. It is great when it is cutting: fast and resistant to dishing (hard). But, for me, it glazes superfast - in 30 seconds or so. From there it still cuts, but noticeably slower, and the level of polish is higher. If you havent refreshed the surface of your SP120 recently... you may not remember how fast it can cut! If so, jog your memory!
I purchased a Naniwa flattening stone to both refresh the surface and flatten the stone. It sucks for both. I purchased the 24 grit version - reasoning that you want a lower grit flattener than the stone you are correcting. As you would expect, the grains are huge and bonded tightly into the stone. Flattening and refreshing the surface is
slow. It is okay on softer stones (resinoid and ceramic) but disappointing on harder (sintered) surfaces.
To be fair. Manufacturers often recommend using SiC grit with these dressing stones anyway. I tried using 80 grit SiC + the flattening stone and the result was only ok.
The best experience I have had for refreshing the surface of the SP120 is using a worn-out 140 grit Atoma plate. The bight in this plate disappeared many moons ago. While I wouldn't recommend ruining a fresh diamond plate on the SP120... I wouldnt rule out diamond plates completely. As always with diamond plates, dont substitute work for high pressure. Only use as much pressure as you need to cut the surface and no more. I probably wouldnt recommend flattening the SP120 with a diamond plate... but if you deglaze the surface every 30-60 seconds, you will maintain a relatively flat surface and fast cutting (edit: super-awesome if you leave the slurry generated by the plate). This is what I do and I do not get the impression the SP120 is rapidly sapping the life out of the Atoma.... But the stone is likely to be rough (
) on the plate... Caveat emptor...