Thread: Any advice welcome

Hi everyone,
I've recently purchased some older straight razors from local antique shops ebay etc and I sent two away to be honed by Neil Miller of the strop shop he did a brilliant job and I can shave with them now, two more have gone down to him for the same treatment.
I have a few left all need making shave ready and was considering trying to do the job myself on some of the remainder, as I will have four shave ready shortly due to Neils abilitys.
I suppose my next step is a stone and of course a strop, I've noticed reccomendations for a Norton 4000/8000 would this be my best bet to start with, the razors I have left reqiure attention, they look pretty good blade wise IE no rust or chips or pitting on the edge area. I've done lots of surfing looking at stones and strops but so many types and styles has me a bit bewildered on what to kick off with.
If anybody is willing to offer any advice knowledge or tips it would be appriciated just to kickstart the process.
Ive stopped buying anymore razors now until I can get the honing bit sorted and before that my shaving technique needs more practice sessions before I can be fully profficient.
Amongst these four is a Kings Crown razor which looks as though the blade is stainless or is it just steel with a high polish?.
The other three are:-
Kropp 6/8 needs a set of scales fitting i have a spare set off a broken blade
Jacobson & Son 5/8
Hamlet 4/8

Best Regards

Bernie

Yeah, a Norton combo 4/8 would be a great place to start.
If you check out the JaNorton thread here on SRP, you'll find a ton of info on how to get the most of that combo stone.

The best tip I could give you is to look thru the Library(wiki) and also the various guides in the honing section.
Other than that, ask away, and we'll try to help you out best that we can

Before all this hone mania started a few years ago there were basically just a handful of hones we all used and the Norton 4/8 was the go to hone for most of us. You can really do it all with that baby. It's a good place to start alright. If you get it use it until you can get a really good shave off it's 8K side and when you have extracted the max from it then move on to a higher grit stone.

I'm a fan of the King 1k/6k combo stone, it's fairly reasonable in the UK at Axminster and comes recommended by Neil himself over here. I can take a razor from ebay chipped to almost shaving sharp on this stone, a king combo and a finishing stone covers most honing needs imo.

It might be worth asking Neil about a starter strop, or one of Larry's poor man strop kits. There's a fair chance you will cause damage when learning to strop.

Pastes, powders and sprays on balsa are very easy to use and pretty cost effective. I realise many here advise sticking to an 8k until you can get great shaves with it but in the beginning I liked evaluating my honing with a shave test before admitting my honing wasn't the best and then using some chrome oxide to easily obtain a wicked sharp edge instead of returning back to the hones. I still use it now but I find I need to reach for it far less frequently as I'm really beginning to enjoy the edges from my natural hones now I've got a bit of muscle memory under my belt.

Thanks Birnado, the bigspender and Proinsias, looks like I've got a couple of options now will probably contact Neil as reccomended for a starter strop like the look of the poor mans strop as well. Axminster stones look to be reasonably priced. So not too much outlay to begin with good! spent too much on razors already! Saved Neils article on honing as well some good info there will read it properly later on now I can begin my quest. Thanks again guys.