i went back and read your OP. At first time i didn't read and thought you are trying to make slurry on Ark and use it.
In fact what you have tried is using Arkansas and different slurry stones.
in your case it is escher and Japanese stone.
The idea is same as One stone sharpening i have posted long time ago or recently i am not Sure Lynn or Glenn posted.
what are you doing is using arkansas as a flat surface(not 100% but similar to it)
Now arkansas stones are novoculate and when you do use them blade cuts the stone.
Lets say molecules(just call this way for simplicity) join together.
when your blade moves it doesn't move whole molecule from each other but it cuts some portion of it.
lets say you have 1mm(example) size molecule as a slurry now.
after this that 1mm molecule will never change the size. it will stay in there and even doesn't have any sharpening quality.
In the other hand your slurries Japanese slurry will get smaller and smaller by using it more.

By using your arkansas stone and Japanese stone you will have finer edge compare to Arkansas stone alone edge
But
you will have worse edge compare to Japanese stone edge.
(lets say you do have japanese sharpening stone)
if you do have just Japanese stone slurry only then your method is good to go.
hope i was clear enough.
this is the video which i posted long time ago. Basically i used different girt slurries and made blade shave ready from scratch.
YouTube - ONE stone sharpening1