Quote Originally Posted by Aaron27 View Post
Would there be any benefit to using a Chinese 12k before transitioning from a Norton 8k to a naniwa 12k?
Not really. All you'd be doing is wasting time. The Naniwa 12K is almost certainly going to be a finer finish than your Chinese 12K, because it's going to be a true 12K finish and not a number attached to a natural stone just to sell hones. You'd be lucky if your Chinese 12K is actually finer than your Norton 8K. If it isn't, you'd be taking a step back before moving forward. If it is somewhere between your 8 and your 12, then it's just going to be slow going polishing the blade up to the Chinese 12K's potential because it cuts slow. By comparison you could probably move from the Norton 8 to the naniwa 12 and have the blade finished in 10-20 strokes because it's a pretty quick cutter.

That said, if you find you like the edges your Chinese 12K produces better than the Naniwa, you can always add that in at the tail end. It should take fewer strokes to get where you want to be coming off the Naniwa 12K than it does coming off the Norton 8K.