I am by no means an expert but from my short experience I’d say on #1 go as high as you can with the stones you have – a polished edge is an incredible cutter. For #2 no I don’t always start at 100 grit. Lately I’m sharpening Case knives that have the factory edge and I start at 400 as I’m just polishing away the grind lines Case left behind. By the time I get to 1600 and strop to 3.5 micron they are WAY sharper than when I started.
Sounds good – I’m thinking the 5000/10000 stones are the way to go after the 1200/1600 ceramics, which I have. I get a pretty shiny finish with those and 3.5 micron strops, the finish on your knives must really be something!
I was wondering the same thing – right now I finish with the 1200/1600 and the 2k/3k stones seem like to small a jump while the 5k/10k seems like it might be too much.
I found some foam rubber that I cut into “wedges” that fit into the clamp on either side of the knife. I have yet to try the foam tape idea but bought some at WalMart so I’ll be trying it soon.
You know what’s wierd, is my left hand does a good job sharpening while I always get cut on my right hand! I think I push harder with it and that gets me into trouble, while the left hand just keeps skating along.