Sorta Newbie from Columbia, MO *need some assistance*

Hi my name is Justin I am sort of new to Straight Razors. I have a Dovo Solingen "Dovo Astrale". I bought it about two years ago, and shaved with it. It wasn't shave ready.... so it worked, but wasn't working well. I ended up buying a stone, that ended up being a 1000/6000 water stone. I assumed that since it was a cheap stone that I needed to flatten it, but I never bought a stone to flatten it. Here it is two years later and I want to try it again, but now I realize I need much finer stones to ever get a great edge. I don't want to dump over a 100 dollars on stones right now. I was hoping to maybe find someone local around Columbia, MO that can hone straight razors... I'm not having much luck. Any suggestions?

Here is a picture of my blade.
Attachment 166386

Check out the Member Services area of our Classifieds. You will find plenty of honers there. Good luck!

Thanks everyone. I got this all taken care of. Can't wait to get the razor back in my hands.

Good luck on starting over. Things should go smoother with a shave ready razor. :tu
Welcome to SRP!

get the chinese 12k from the ee forum

flatten the stones you have now using sand paper on a flat block of wood
it sounds strange but it works
you'll see the colour of the stone change where the sand paper exposes fresh material

Glad you were able to work the situation out. I was looking all over for an Astrale a few months ago, but they were out of stock. Got a Bismarck instead, but love the style of the Astrale!

Lynn over at SRD has always honed mine. He's amazing.