ok, so maybe not before the first use, I tried the 3,3 1,3 1,5 pyramid last night and did not make any noticable progress with my new Dovo razor. It will not currently pass the hanging hair test, it only bends the hair without even cutting it. I dont believe that I overhoned it with the little honing test last night though.

I went for the gold and bought the Norton 4k/8k waterstone, the norton flattening stone, and the little white norton prep stone.

My question is should I lap the norton stone before the first use? It appears to be very flat right out of the box. I also bought a set of 400 and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a 6x8" glazed ceramic tile from Lowes today to finish smothing after lapping the norton stone as I have read that the norton flattening stone is very rough.

From what I've read, you rub them in a figure eight motion to lap the stone smooth, correct?

I bought a tiny microscope today from Radio Shack too, its very cool to see the 100x magnified edge of the razor, and I think I can tell that it could be sharper by just looking at it.

Last, but not least, what do I do with the norton prep stone??