Welcome Alex. Even a barber's hone will put an edge on your razor, and depending on the individual razor it may not actually take so long.
Manfred is a great seller, but the fact is that most razors are not sharp enough for shaving out-of-the-box from the maker.
I have made an old Kropp razor shave ready by using a barber's hone as I don't yet own a 4000/8000 waterstone. You can pick up a barber's hone for $10 to $20 on ebay, or you may find one in an antique store. A strop will not sharpen the razor, it will realign the edge of an already sharp razor in preparation for shaving.
There are some good instructional videos and threads to help with learning honing and stropping on this forum. If you don't hone and strop correctly, it will create problems with the edge. Many suggest sending the razor to a honemaster to avoid problems with learning honing technique and so you know what a sharp blade feels like during the shave.
After you have a sharp razor, actual shaving technique can be learned, but straight razor shaving is a steep learning curve and takes time.