I agree with Utopian that you might benefit from an intermediate grit of 3k to 5k as it will lessen the amount of time on the 8k. I'd also suggest, if you haven't been doing so already, is to watch the bead of water in front of the blade. What I've learned from a thread here is that you want the the bead to eventually flow evenly upon the belly of the blade before moving up to the next level.