Originally Posted by
Russel Baldridge
The big issues with knowing when to progress from one stone to the next has to do with removing the previous grits scratches before moving to a finer abrasive.
The edge is just about as sharp as it's going to get after about 4k, and from there on up the edge just gets smoother. It feels a lot sharper because of the decreased inconsistency (peaks and valleys left by the abrasives) of the edge.
CrO works so well and so fast because it mainly smoothes out the very edge of the blade, not the entire bevel like a stone does. At least, that's my experience with the stuff.