for some reason the people who sell arkansas stones say that unless the edge is damaged you can start sharpening on the soft and work up,in my experiance unless it was just a touch up i found using a silicone stone first and finishing on the arkansas was way faster even with my washita i used it to finish after the silicone,even now i use the silicone if the edge is blunt and finish with the soft hard and black and i wonder if other arkansas users start on the washita or soft when the edge is blunt,sometimes i only do six or so strokes on the silicone before i progress to the arkansas and it's a lot faster than trying to bring back a blunt edge just on arks just need to think like your using nortons or similar you wouldn't start on the 4k with a blunt edge,i never thought to ask how the arkansas stones were being used and now i'm curious as to how you guys progress through stones when using arkansas's,