I don't have any honing stones and prefer it to be done by a pro the first few times out, which will be a long time with my current set up.

My Best pur badger brush has served me well and cost $45.00. I bought Col. Conk Soap and still use it. I have enough to last me a whole year. $25.00

I didn't want to invest too much in getting started since I didn't know if I would be into straight shaving, so I bought a cheap straight that took disposable blades and enough blades to last me 4 months if I shaved with it every day - $35.00.

Once I said I was committed, then the big money was spent on more new items: Dovo Special straight, 3" Latigo strop, 4 sided pasted strop, and another higher end straight blade - $400.00+

I advocate starting out simple and learning how to shave BBS and becoming efficient with your technique. Use the Mach 3 to clean up rough spots as you are learning. As your technique improves, you will phase out the Mach 3 and use it less and less. Prepare yourself to move up the learning curve over time.

The knowledge base I built up with my initial purchases and initial experience has served me well and put me on top of the learning curve quickly. Although there are different ways to get on top of the learning curve, my experience was quick, simple, and inexpensive.

Using the disposable blades gave me great insight into shaving because I would use the same blade for roughly 5-6 shaves and I would lighthly feel the blade after each shave and get a sense of just how sharp the blade was and its performance. Disposable blades 1st/2nd time - Super sharp/amost too sharp, 3rd/4th time, perfect sharpness, 5th/6th time starting to tug too much, time for a new blade.

Thus when I strop the Dovo Straights, I have a good sense of when they need a few laps on the pasted strops to get to the right level of sharpness/performance that I enjoy.

I hope this helps newbies getting into straight shaving.

Pabster