Hi,

I have been lurking for quite a while now and decided to take the plunge in early December. I have already picked up 4 razors (2 from an antique store and 2 from friendly people here) and am waiting on a pasted bench strop (1.0 + 0.5) and hanging strop from Tony Miller (what a fantastic man to work with!). The users who sold me their razors claim that the edges are shave-ready, but I have not yet shaved with them because I am waiting for the strops. At the same time I am scared of dulling those blades as soon as my newbie hands put them to leather....ohhh, dilemma.

Thus, my new plan is to work with the 2 antique razors - 1 appears to be a W&B wedge and the other a 4/8 (possibly used to be a 5/8) Boker - and do my best to get them sharp enough that I won't fear damaging the edge on the other 2 razors. But with my student budget quickly catching up to me I cannot afford a Norton 4k/8k. So I was wondering, since the 1.0 micron pasted strop appears to be around 8k grit (at least thats what I understand from reading many posts), could I get away with saving some money and simply buying a cheaper 4k stone for the time being and using the 1.0 micron pasted strop as my 8k?

Would these stones suffice?:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...072,43071&ap=1

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...072,43071&ap=1


Thanks for all that you have taught me so far!