I found an old straight razor that belong to my grandfather. I'm having one heck of a time trying to get it sharp and I'm not sure if I should bother to keep trying for a few reasons I'll list below. For example, I've put about 3 hours into honing it on a 4000 and 8000 grit stone (got stone from classic shaving), primarily on the 4000 grit stone.

It has "Geneva" stapped on it as though that were the company, but otherwise has no ID markings. The old case it came in is so faded I can't read it any longer. The handle is made of some kind of plastic.

Here are some things that concerns me about the razor:

I don't know how long the razor was used or if it was ever 'abused'. In fact I don't even know if it was ever used at all, but it doesn't look new and didn't come in 'new' packaging.

I don't know how old the razor is, or how many owners it may have had.

I don't know why it was put away in a storage box, or for how long it sat there.

I don't know who made the razor.

There is some 'funk' on the blade that isn't rust, but won't come off either.

Is 3+ hours reasonable to sharpen/hone the blade on a stone?

The bade does say 'steel', but there is some rust around where the blade and the handle connect. (I thought steel didn't rust.)

Because of how much I don't know about this blade, I am inclinded to just buy a new one. But since I'm so new to all of this, I'm not sure what would be considered 'reasonable'.

Thanks for any help.