I am no means a Pro at Honing straights,however, I do shave with everything I sharpen. I have 25 different straights and everyone will shave me. When I first started with straights, all I had to sharpen them was my oil stones. I did purchases a set of Nortons as that they were so much quicker to use to sharpen. There is a world of difference between the two type of stones. I find that the oil stones can absorb more pressure while your sharpening and are more forgiving. I believe that it is because they are slow cutters. Now, this is just my opinion, but I love my oils. I find that the blackie, gives a very high gloss Finnish to the blades that I use on them, and in fact I have a few razors that would not sharpen on my nortons took great edges on the blackie. again, I think this is do to the metal being just a little softer. I use both the Norton and the oil stones, but sometime for some situations the oils just do a better job