Great advice.

I just purchased a gently used Dovo razor on eBay to practice my honing skills before attempting to hone my brand new TI. I bought the Norton "kit", which includes a flattening stone. So I'll obviously take your advice and lap both sides of my 4000/8000 combo stone before I try honing my newly acquired Dovo, which seems to need some help.

I'm also going to get myself an inexpensive microscope from RadioShack to compare my TI and Dovo (before and after). I'm excited to start honing, but realize the learning curve is pretty steep. Feedback on this forum has really helped.

I'd still like to find a hanging strop because my paddle strop still feels "short" to me.

How critical is a Belgium stone / Nagura stone combination for finishing (assuming I have a 8000 Norton)?