Thread: A little confused and needing help

Hi all,
im new to straight blade and a little confused. For reference im just did my 1st shave and it went piss poorly but I had a ton of fun so im ok with that! Haha. hand technique will take awhile. I picked up a Portland razor co siren 1/4 hollow which was honed to shave ready right in front of me. I'm reading all these posts and I'm confused on if I should be "refreshing" the blade. Obviously my skills on blade maintenance are almost zero. I have a 2.5" strope and i practice my technique with a butter knife. I know to strope before every shave but I keep reading about refreshing or using a finishing stone is that the same as honing or am I supposed to do it regularly and get my own stone to do it and how often. I live in a city that doesn't have a honemeister so when it's time to get it honed I'll have to take it to where I bought the razor( 2 hours away)
im am quickly falling in love with straight razor shaving even with the 4 nicks I gave myself today!
Thanks all
Chuck