While I cannot comment on the smiles and frowns I can say this.

4k - 6k are where your sharpness starts, anything above that is polish.

In short it sounds as if you were polishing the edge instead of sharpening it. I am sure the smiles/frowns/Elvises, and bad spines did not help either.

Try the lower grits until it pops arm hair with out skipping or jumping around then move to the next and the next. TPTs are great at all grits to make sure that everything is in line as well.