Good afternoon, all.

I am a new straight razor shaver, and have been lurking on this forum a day or two, and decided to post a few questions of my own.

A brief intro: I have been using the straight razor for 3 days now, and although I am fairly happy with the shave it gives, reading these forums has led me to believe that my razor is rather dull and I am losing out on a better shave. Experts, am I right in thinking that a) my razor is not sharp enough and b) I am in need of a better hone? Read on.

1) My razor, strop, and hone are all from Col. Conk. The retailer's site told me that the razor is a rebranded Dovo made for Conk. The razor is plain apart from "Made in Solingen" markings on the blade tang, and fancy "Solingen" scrollwork on the face of the blade. My strop has no paste apart from leather conditioner. (Dovo yellow paste)

2) The razor shaves alright from the box with a bit of stropping, (by my standards of disposable razors, anyway, forgive me, I'm new) but is fairly uncomfortable to use. Mild razorburn occurs, despite a thick lather on my face.

3) The razor absolutely does NOT even come close to passing the hanging hair test. I have to swing the razor rather severely to cut a hanging hair, which is both frightening and unsafe. When the razor finally does cut the hair, there is an audible pinging noise.

4) I have attempted to resolve this by honing the razor (did not do this before first shave) on the supplied stone (I gather, from other posts, that it is rather coarse; about 1200 grit) and although honing and stropping have improved the blade, it still does not pass HHT.

If I do indeed require a new hone, which is good for a new shaver? The Norton seems to be recommended frequently, although it is a bit spendy. Many seem to prefer waterstones... is there a consensus? I am new the razor honing but very familiar with honing other sorts of blades, but none of my stones are remotely fine enough to use on a razor.