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Just yesterday, I got in the mail my new Belgian yellow coticule stone. I was like a kid at Christmas. Then I realized that I don't have any razors that need honing. My Geneva was honed a couple of weeks ago and my Thiers Issard is in the mail coming home from honing. Now it feels like a kid at Christmas who's been slapped with "batteries not included."
Whipped dog $28 flawed razor? Pawn shop/antique store/flea market score?
Looks to me like you might need to go scrounge something up.
If you're new stones mean that you're also new to honing, you really don't want to begin learning the ropes on your TI or Geneva. Head over to eBay and pick up some rough stuff. Nothing that you intend to shave with really, just something that will give you the chance to run over your stone to the point where you can start achieving shavable edges. You'll want to do this over and over with either the same razors or new additions until you're confident enough to try it on one of your good ones. Remember, you're not looking for greatness off of eBay, just something that appears to be able to take an edge.
My mother-in-law is a big antique hound and for Christmas got me a straight razor she found that is practically solid rust. I actually considered trying it for a bit.
I totally forgot about Whipped Dog though. That might be a good choice to learn honing with.
When shopping for a razor to learn to hone on it does still need to be solid and without geometry issues. You want a good razor just not an expensive one otherwise you will have to learn about more than standard honing which could be significantly more depending on your victim
+1 on not learning to Hone on anything you really like/need... Gold Dollars are base-end junkers and a 50/50 shot on even getting a decent one of their "lesser" quality... But, they are great as far as needing something cheap, in the shape of a SR and can take a beating as you learn the mechanics and techniques!
Find something you don't mind destroying to learn on! ;)
Best of luck!
Shawn
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You can maintain your razors with the coticule, but restoring the edge on a junk razor is not really a job for that stone.
Also just maintenance is very different from honing. I'd say your best path is to first decide what you want to do and if you want to do full honing pick up a coarse 1000-level hone, if not simply wait until your razors need a touchup.
I wouldnt bother with the GDs or other razors that may not be viable choices. What is to be learned on a blade that wont perform no matter what? Do as Ivan has suggested, either get a minimum number of necessary hones or keep the coti for touch ups.
The coticule now rounds out my hones. I have a Norton 4000/8000 and a Naniwa 12k already. I have a long history of knife sharpening, but I'm new to straight razor sharpening, so I am looking for something to learn with. I think the Whipped Dog flawed razors are probably perfect if I can't get something decent on eBay.
To clarify, first I want to learn to refresh my existing razors. Then I can pick up a 1000 grit stone when I want to progress to minor restorations. I rather liked that bit of advice I read on these forums.
Yes, you want to stick with the known grit man-made hones until you figure out how the edge should progress as it gets sharper. 1000-grit level hone is essential if you are going to work on razors without bevel - setting the bevel properly is over 90% of the work. If you do that right the rest is pretty straightforward and quick no matter if you use the norton 4k/8k combo or slurry dilution on coticule.