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I guess 90% of the time those are the steps.
12k Chinese, 16 Shapton, Nakayama (cheap and not very good polisher) , a nice Suita (to arrive next week) rated in the 35-38k range for final polish.

Haha yeah, the same way I was set with my 16 shapton, before I went on to buy one of those multo $$$ Japanese finishers...

This is very reasonable explanation.
Another question, in your opinion is it possible just one out of line stroke on finer grits ruin the whole honing job at previous grits?
I am sure one mistake @...

I think that when the geometry is good, no frowns, no uneven bevels etc. more stones do not hurt.
When you have to do some rolling X and such to account for geometry then the more stones the bigger...