Where synthetics and Jnats overlap

[MindTone]

First off! I'm new to straight razor honing, though I come from knife sharpening and polishing so I'm not totally lost when it comes to stones and stuff. My question is when in a progression is it reasonable to jump to Jnats? My finest stone at the moment is a Kitayama 8k, is it a waste of time going that high before going natural? I've been eying a hard Ozuku type 100 from JNS and a pair of Asano naguras(Tenjyou and Mejiro) but I don't know when it makes sense to go to that fram synthetics?
Well that was a bit incoherent, hope someone gets what I'm asking

 

[buca3152]

8k to jnat is fine. There are many ways though. I used to use naguras but found after a few years that it didn't give me anything. Diamond plate slurry or a Tomo nagura works fine. Small slurry of one Tomo to start, size of a quarter. You can make that slurry larger after a few attempts. But there aren't any rules. Follow your results.

 

[stone and strop]

I don't think it is a waste of time going to 8k first.
I always go to 8k then switch to naturals. I'm not much of a slurry guy so just use the natural to finish with.
It saves the finish stone and a lot less messy going through a few slurry sessions that would be necessary if you didn't go that high.