ok, so they were shaving you fine at some point?
you did get the wrong hone then, you wanted the 4000/8000.
the set that you have will be very tricky to get a shaving edge off, so yes i'd say you'd like to get a norton 4000 as well.
i would suggest once you have good bevel to proceed with pyramids - read mparker's recent posts in the recent pyramid thread if you want even further perspective on why your chances for success are better that way.
there's not all that much to honing. i like alan's perspective on it - only two things to learn
(1) a light and consistent stroke.
(2) when to switch hones.
thanks for all the advice guys, maybe I was a bit vague at first, after the 1K produced a blade sharp enough to take a couple of moistened soft arm hairs off I assumed (wrongly) I could jump to the 8K. (Run before walking here I think). I'll have to get the intermediate stone. Seeing as I have a 1K/8K combo already, and as a newbie do you recommend 4K or 6K