Alternative setup - heretical or acceptable?
My understanding is that when it comes to honing - the basic setup - the "norm" is a progression from 4K grit through 8K, followed by perhaps some super-fine gritted polishing stones and/or pastes.
Now, where I live, this is not straight forward. What's readily available when it comes to finer grits around these parts is no higher than 6K, but pastes are available. Now, my question is this: would the following setup be OK?
4K stone - 6K stone/pasted paddle strop with 3 micron paste (3 micron = 8K grit) - barber's hone/finer pastes
Part of me is telling me that substituting an 8K stone for the 3 micron paste will work, but another part is telling me that it's not the same seeing as how one is used with the edge leading and the other with the edge trailing. And I also have a sneaking suspicion that 6K will be a tad too coarse for edge finishing compared to 8K.
Thoughts?