[tirebob]

You should try and stay within no more than doubling your grit like 60/120/240 and on. Obviously you only ever need to go to the lower grits really when making a knife or completely re-establishing a bevel on a badly damaged knife when lots of material needs to be removed. Sharpening knives that are really bad (think mini chips on edge) I go all the way down to 220 or so depending on the type of stone I use. Most often though I start around a 600 then go up just under double grit jumps up to between 4000 for corse work knives and all the way to 13000 sometimes on a cooking knife or razor. I even finish on a horse hide strip charged with green paste and then bare leather last. Really 4000 is extremely sharp as it is but when you become a sharpening geek you tend to go overboard.

What type of stones depend largely on the knife steel. Some stainless or powdered steels need diamonds or or Japanese water stones while standard high carbon steels are fine with oil stones. Softer steel will sharpen on the diamond stones but super hard steels will not sharpen, or sharpen very slowly at best, on oil stones. I have many varieties and use them all on different occasions, but the most all around for everyday corse use I find a diamond plate simple and portable. For things I want razor sharp I go Japanese water stones every time. Oil stones are great for high carbon steels though and last a lot longer than Japanese water stones. A guy could go on and on. It just depends what you want. Super fine tune sharpening or just regular workaday. Convenience is always a factor too. Cost as well is always something to consider.