In taking up the art of straight razor shaving, I realize that besides a strop, a finishing stone and pasted strop some stones will most likely be needed to keep things in tip top shape. Otherwise I will need to rely on other sources to re-hone and sharpen my razor from time to time. I like to learn and to be self sufficient for the most part, so I would like to give it a try.

I do know how to sharpen knives, as I make them in my spare time. So I do have a few stones (common double sided), and some Diamond Sharpeners.

I do realize that there is a lot more finishing required with a straight razor. So I am looking to pick up some new stones for that as well.

I am looking at the Naniwa Super Stones and am trying to decide the Grits (thinking about 1k, 3k, 5k, 8k, 12k) along with a lapping stone and holder. Are these all necessary as I would like to avoid buying roughly $400 in sharpening stones if they are not really necessary. The site I am looking at has a set of 4,5,6 stones but they all include a 220 which I do not feel I need as it is probably similar to my current stones and definitely not needed for the Razor. Those sets all leave out the 8k as well, jumping from 3k to 10k or 5k to 12k.

I do definitely want the 12k stone

I also was looking at a site online, where they used a piece of Granite and some 3M abrasive sheets to sharpen.

Looking for some good advice on the subject.