Well Norton made the 1-4-8. Harrelson Stanley, the plane honer extradonaire, and USA rep for Shapton has said that doubling the grit is the 'rule of thumb' he uses. As in 4-8-16 in the glass series. Some guys like to put in between grits in there.

In Europe the only vendor I've bought hones from is Deiter Schmidt's Fine Tools in Germany. Very satisfactory service. On the grit question, it would seen that, other than the 1k, jumping beyond double is stretching it ....... no pun intended.