Quote Originally Posted by Bradford Si View Post
Too early for me to tackle this then? ideally what brands should I look at for a honing piece?

It looks in very good condition. Obviously I do not know how good you are at honing. I got one in almost mint condition that had never been honed and did not have a bevel at all. I started honing but felt the bevel forms very slowly. Due to limited time I haven't finished yet.
If you are patient, don't press to hard and go from 4K to 8K on the Norton you should be fine. If you have very little honing experience I recommend you practice on sth cheap and cheerful 1st or if you want to start using it soon you may want to send it off. If you do it wrong you risk getting an uneven bevel or a frown which will take quite some effort to correct and wich reduces the nice width of the blade (mine is between 7/8 and 8/8) You may not want to risk losing 1/16 just due to inexperience.