If you want to get started honing on the cheap you might consider the King 1000 or 1200 for bevel setting and then move to the King 6000.
The Kings are not the ultimate waterstones but their availability is good and they are capable of getting an Ebay or antique store razor to shave again.
The 1000 may have a few "rocks" imbedded in it but they can be dug out with a sharp point and the very small resulting hole will not be noticed while honing.
I am not saying you will find these defects in a King 1000 but you might.
The 6000 that I used had no issues and worked well enough.
The key to learning how to hone is to come to a point where you don't blame the hone's deficiencys for your lack of expertise.
Learn how to vary your honing strokes to concentrate your efforts on the areas of the edge that needs extra attention.
Get the bevel even in width on both sides and to very sharp and then a few more strokes with a rolling X pattern with light and then very light contact with the 1000 and then move to the 6000.
Having made the necessary corrections to the bevel with the 1000 you should be able to finish with rolling X strokes on the 6000, finishing with very little to almost no pressure.
You can shave off the 6000 but it will definitely not be a smooth shave.
The use of a leather strop and some chromium oxide are capable of smoothing out the edge.
Shave a bit off the 6000 to find out what sharp is and then smooth out the edge by stropping. If you lose sharpness due to poor stropping technique, go back to the 6000 for a few very light strokes, and try the stropping again.
Also you will find that getting an exceptable shave with minimal gear will probably be easier if you start with a blade made of English steel.
The German, USA, and Swedish steels are more challenging to get to shave smoothly.
Also your time and money will be wasted by trying to learn on Pakistan and Chinese made razor lookalikes.
This post got to be much much longer than I anticipated but I hope that I have steered you in a direction that will give you some satisfaction.