To the OP's initial query, honing for me was part of the excitement of straight-razor shaving from the start. That said, if I had to do it all over again, I would start with a couple of beater straight razors to learn honing with, saving the decent stuff for later, once I had cut my teeth on honing the beaters. As to a complete progression for beaters, I would suggest one of the following:

Water stones: DMT coarse/fine combo for lapping and chip removal, Suehiro 1k/3k combo, for bevel-setting, a coticule, and a piece of Welsh purple slate.

Oil stones: 6"x2" coarse/fine Norton Crystalon, for dressing the Arkansas stones and chip removal, 6"x2" soft/black hard Arkansas combo, for bevel-setting and finishing. A red/black pasted loom strop would also be helpful off the black hard Arkansas stone.