I've had a norton 4/8 since august of last year and that has been pretty much the entirety of my hone arsenal. I'm looking for a coarser grit stone because the 4k norton just isn't cutting it for some of the Ebay nicks i'm encountering--in short, I just dont have the patience to be doing hundreds of passes on the 4k complete with periodic lapping, etc.

I've read on here and elsewhere that the naniwa 1k is a good way to go for bevel setting (i'm also going to buy a naniwa 12k but that's a different posting).

My question is instead of getting the 1k can I get away with buying a naniwa 400 for bevel setting and then move right from there to my norton 4k? Will it take a ton of passes on the norton to smooth off the 400? I'd be interested if anyone has tried this progression with any success.

any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.