Two weeks in

I want to let everyone know this forum rocks and has been a huge help for me. I purchased a crown razor off ebay a while back for practice and you guys helped me with some questions about it. About two weeks ago I bought a 6/8 dovo red bismarck from SRD along with an Illinois # 835 strop, and some bay rum soap with a Vulfix boar bristle brush from classic shaving. I don't have a very thick beard, but felt I would like the feel of a larger blade. First shave took about 15min and aside from the soap burning the hell out of my face I got a BBS shave and no nicks doing a three pass (wtg,xtg,atg) shave. I was not expecting this to be my first experience with a straight, but with the advice from this site it was possible for me. I am bald by choice so I had to test the razor on my head the same evening. This was much more time consuming but I did a several wtg passes which yielded a good result all around. Now I'm two weeks in and shave my head and face every other day and have had only one nick, well, laceration is probably the appropriate term, (sneezing while shaving is not cool) and all my shaves have been BBS. My only question thus far is; what is the best choice in a hone simply to refresh an edge? My razor still shaves like day one but I don't want to spend $20 every couple months to have it honed. Much thanks!

Congratulations on the good progress.
For refreshing the edge any finishing hone should do. The ceramic finishing barbers hones are probably the cheapest, but certainly not the only option. A small coticule or thuringian will be more expensive, but some people prefer them. I've never used the chinese stone - that's around $30 iirc. Another alternative may be a paste (0.5u CrO is popular) and with light beard and shaves every other day who knows when it'll be time for hone.

Its great that you are getting good results. IMO, and this really is just an OPINION-I feel it benefits anyone shaving with a Str8 to learn to hone. The fact that a blade is SHARP and will easily cleave your beard is no guarantee of a comfortable shave. I too have a very coarse beard and as a result I find it necessary to have to go to the hone more frequently than those with finer facial hair.

The Norton 4000/8000 is a very good way to start your own honing. For me the Shapton Glass stones have really made the task easier. Provided you don't damage the edge to the point of needing the bevel reset an 8000 grit stone will keep you razor SHARP. But you will need either a coticule or in my case a 16000 grit Shapton glass hone to really refine your edge so you get a comfortable shave.

Directly off an 8000 grit stone and even with literally 100 strokes on leather the edge absolutely irritates my skin-even though it easily cuts my whiskers, for me the blade needs more than just a leather stropping.You have the benefit of having started with a sharp razor and with some patience you'll be able to maintain an edge.

The Shapton Glass hones get my vote. It's one of many ways that you could go.Using an 8000 and a 16000 Shapton, I've been able to keep ALL my razors shave ready with just a simple pyramid method. For example 3-8000/3-16000 then 2-8000/3-16000 finishing with 1-8000/10-16000.(Lynn's DVD is an excellent source for honing info too) The Shaptons are AGGRESSIVE-but I have yet to overhone using them. Followed by a normal amount of stropping on plain leather, I've been able to get comfortable shaves everytime. YMMV though....Good luck.:D

There are lots of good choices out there. If your razor is always kept in top condition, then a yellow coticule would be my one stone of choice for maintenance. Howard at The Perfect Edge has a good selection with reasonable prices. The quality of his stones is very good.