I'm very comfortable sharpening all manner of tools and haven't had any trouble taking razors through a progression from "butter-knife" sharp (found at my local antique store) all the way up to passing HHT in two nights. Basic honing is more or less second nature to me, but I do use a barber's hone for current final polishing. I assume from everything I feel that these are very slow stones, though they do seem to put a pretty good edge on a blade. I am looking at the shapton's as a quick way to do 1) bevel setting on restored blades 2) move into final honing on the same blades. I've found that I can get some very sweet razors for $5-10 at antique stores, though you do have to be prepared to work on them. What I would have to ask, with my current finishing stone in mind, is how much faster than a barber's hone are these stones? I assume it isn't going to be a super quick process to find out how fast these cut, but I would appreciate the feedback on these hones compared to the barber's.