I'm posting this to kind of give a newbie summary for other newbies.

Summary

- Cost to get honed/shaved: $120 (stone/strop/razor)
- Total Cost with second razor, more stones, and some niceties: $425
- Time to learn honing: 15 hours
- Time to hone after learning: 1 hour
- Shave attempts before getting a decent full face shave of 100% face (est): 5 shaves
- Shave attempts before getting a good/comfortable shave (est): 10 shaves
- Time before able to do the first shave: 1 week.

Previous experience:

- Norelco electric razor and disposables.
- Disposables nick sometimes, lather dries, hard to shave long growth.
- Norelco is easy but hard on long growth and never close.

Straight Razor experience (~2 weeks)
- 4 shaves, each one getting better.
- Not yet getting the mustache/chin area, but getting more of it. (finish off with Norelco)
- No major nicks.
- No ATG
- Razor bought for $18 at antique store, great condition, sharp as a dull knife, no nicks.
- Self honed on Norton 4k/8k (10-15 hours of reading and 2-4 hours sharpening)
- If I had to hone it again, I think I could do the whole process in less than an hour.
- Passed arm hair test after each hone. Never passed HHT.
- Honed again after first shave using rolling-X. Previous hones were standard-X.
- After four shaves, stropping feels natural. No more nicking the strop.
- After 4th shave, did HHT just for fun and it passed repeatedly. (stropping?)
- Bought second razor for $120
- Bought stone for $75 (bought the 220/1k and Chinese 12k but have not received yet. Cost: $70-ish for the pair)
- Bought small strop for $25
- Soap/brush/bowl (wife bought as a gift, have not received, I think she paid more than $100).

I hope that can give others an idea as to what to expect if you go all-in with shaving/honing.

Steve