How do You Jump?

In doing some shopping for hones, I have seen a number of what would be called "ceramic" or man-made Japanese hones. It appears that you can buy them in grits that cover the ranges that are commonly used by our memebers.

My question is whether there is a commonly held consesus on an acceptlible (service-able) gap between the grits that people use. For instance; I know from a lot of reading that many folks use a Norton 4000/8000 progression followed by some type of finishing stone that would be in the 10,000 to 12,000 range. This might lead me to conclude that an acceptible "gap" might be 4000.

Is there anything to be gained by running up the grits in a tighter fashion? Say; honing at 2000 grit increments? In the Japanese stones you can almost do this.

Also; Better to stay with one type of stone? Norton or Japanese vs. mixing and matching?

Just some random thoughts...
Thanks everyone!

Most of how you chose your progression is personal preference...
But I believe most would agree that they either swing natural or they swing man-made....
Some are switch hitters and use man-made up to the 8k stage then switch hit to a natural finish stone, some switch hit the other way natural stone until the finish stone, Some don't even go past 8k and finish with pasted strops or not at all... See personal preference again!!!!
The only thing that seems to be agreed upon is the somehow the razor needs to.......
1. Have a bevel established, how low you go in grit to do this is. again personal preference and experience ...
2. Have that bevel sharpened on a stone. somewhere in the 4k arena...
3. Polish that sharpend bevel on a stone somewhere in the 8k range.....

I think on these 3 points at least 90% of the honers out there will agree on, but watch what the other 10% will come up with....
Basically the one thing we all agree to disagree on is how to hone a razor to shave ready form... I personally think that the majority of that problem is that each person has a different stroke on the hones, and we all have different razors that we are honing..... The one thing you need to figure out, is which way you are going to start, then find someone that uses almost the same system that you're using, that you trust, to help you along......
That is my 2 pennies worth...:)

You can really get carried away with this honing thing. It seems logical to many that you could start with a 4000 and do a few strokes then go to a 6K then to an 8K then to a 10 K and keep right on going up to a 35K. However things don't work that way. The idea is to use the highest grit you can get away with and do the fewest strokes you need to do. For most people with a quality razor in good shape the 8K and maybe a 12K is all you ever need or if your a pasted strop guy the equivilent in grits. If you need restoration work the 4K and maybe a 1K is all you should need there. If then razor is in such bad shape that you need to go down to a 220, well, I'm glad its your razor and not mine.

Beginners benefit from more steps, "jumping" shorter. With experience many of the steps become unnecessary. Great question!