Question about honing as a beginner

As I am getting set to making my first purchase, I definitely plan on having my very first straight razor honed by a honemeister (Tony or Lynn). After receiving all my equipment including the pre-honed straight, I will eventually need to sharpen the blade as time goes on.

1. Is it recommended to use a paddle strop with an abrasive to keep it sharp, or should the blade simply get honed each time the blade dulls?

2. I would love to learn how to hone and do my own rather than having to always send my razors out to be done by a honemeister - is this too ambitious of me, or is this reasonable to accomplish?

3. Should I purchase a hone with all my other equipment when I make my first purchase? If so, it seems like everyone recommends a Norton 4k/8k - is that right?

4. I know there are several factors, but on average, how often should honing be done - some places I have seen 2 to 4 times a year, other websites mention doing it approximately once a month.

1. Paddle strops are nice but if you choose to get a Norton 4/8k, check on the abrasive paste grit and get something higher than the 8k. Tony Miller can pre-paste leather bench hones or 4 sided paddle strops. If you get a Norton, I don't know how necessary the paddle will be unless you use a finer grit to get a smoother edge.

2. No, you can certainly learn to hone. That said, spend time learning to strop more. Proper stropping will go a long way to minimize the frequency you need to rehone the razor. And, since it's something you will need to do every day you shave, it's a skill well worth mastering early. (I didn't follow this advice and regret not spending more time up front learning to strop properly. The result is that I continually dull my edges when stropping).

3. Norton 4/8k seems to be the standard and is a good maintenance tool. I just picked one up and love it.

4. This depends, probably more frequently when you're first learning. I think every 4-6 weeks is a reasonable average.

Welcome to the addiction. Take it slowly and focus on technique (shaving and stropping) and you'll do well.

Well, if you go the pre-honed route, that'll certainly get you shaving comfortably the most quickest (just be real careful cuz it'll be extremely sharp).

I started a few months back with a couple of ebay specials. Must of spent more hours that I really should of sharpening them. I got them to the point where they passed/almost passed the HHT but shaved horribly. Turns out one of them is not sharpenable and is beyond its life. I sent them to Josh, a member here to help me sharpen the other one.

Tony Miller is a great guy to purchase your equipment from. I bought a hanging strop from him and also his four sided pasted strop (3, 1, .5 and .25).

Hope your intro to straight razors goes quicker and better then mine!

-kelly