Thread: Really Confused About Honing & Stropping

Hello, i have been shaving with safety razor blades for a few years.
I never asked help or searched before for safety razor blades, i feel quite comfortable with them from the beginning. But I really knew nothing about straight razors except that they are really dangerous. Luckily i just discovered this amazing forum. It is really hard to find the classic straight razors in my country (Turkey). Nearly all of them are replacable razor blades. But i am in Germany for journey now, so i think it is a really good opportunity for me to get a one. I have a few options about straight razors in my mind but the real problem is about Honing!

I searched most of the guides, youtube videos about honing and what i learned in the end; it is not something suitable for not experienced ones. I feel like i should avoid honing at all cost because it requires some experience (if you are not lucky you may damage the edge), English is not my native language (sorry for that) so i may not understand all suggestions about honing in videos etc... Also whetstones are not so cheap, i do not want to pay for something that may even damage razor.
For example, in some youtube videos or suggestion in this forum i saw '' I can use tape to protect razor while honing ''. But i just did not understand it, the suggestions also say '' I must keep right angle all the time '', but if i use that tape on top part of razor, the angle already changed from the original angle and there is no way to keep the same angle with that tape! So after that all whirl, i decide not to hone the straight razor blade which i will purchase.

Commonly, if you are beginner and in a situtation like me you should hone your razor at professional shops not yourself. But it is already really hard to find normal straight razors in where i am living, how can i trust a guy who probably never honed this things before? As far as i know, i do not have to hone so often. Every 2 months is enough to keep it shard or even more. But at the end it has to be honed, right? The only solution come to my mind is an additional pasted strop but i am not sure it will be enough to keep it sharp for several years. So that is the point i stucked and i need your opinions.

My options (which i like how it is look like) about the razor:
1. Link for details
(Set includes a leather strope, i just need a pasted strop)
2. Link for details
3. Link for details
4. Link for details
5. Link for details

The 4 & 5 does not look great for me, but i hope they can shave as well as other ones. The thing is, they cost lower prices so i can buy both of them. 3/8 would be great for me because sometimes i shave round beard etc... And i can imagine it wont be easy to manipulating 6/8 or even maybe 5/8 ones.

So what should i do? If the honing is a problem which i can not solve myself (and without wasting same amount of money for razor), i could just give up this desire and buy a good quality safety razor blade like Merkur Vision 2k. But it is the last option for me.


Sorry for length of the post and probably with full of mistakes
Thanks a lot!