Lots of good info here! For me, if the bevel is not set, I will hit the 1k, and once the whole edge passes the TNT, I will make a couple more passes just in case my nail dulled the edge a bit.
Then I move up to a finer stone. IMO, once the bevel is set, the hard part is done, and, again, IMO, it's just polishing from there on out. All you are really doing is polishing that edge to remove the scratches produced from the previous stone. Once you have the whole edge looking the same, and the scratches aren't getting any better, move on to the next stone. Rinse and repeat as high as your system takes you. And as stated above, once you get the bevel set, the test that matters the most is the shave test. If you are happy, then that's all that matters right?