Thread: if you had to keep it down to... 3...

4K will take care of most edges, with a little patience

8K will get you a good edge

12K Chinese is cheap and puts a nice butter edge on a razor

.5 or .25 paste can take your edges into really sharp smooth polished edges and will let you play with pastes, which everybody wants to do at some point.

Putting the paste in balsa wood is cheaper than a strop and sits deeper into the wood, keeping the edge smoother.