I'm new to all of this- honing, straight shaving etc, but after reading a lot on here and watching lots of youtube videos I thought I'd be able to handle everything.

I purchased a new dovos, Japanese King 1000/6000 waterstone and a Welsh finishing stone (seller rated it 12000+). I also purchased a paddle strop.

I initially got into this to save money, and now I'm over $350 bucks in the hole.

So I seemed to have a bit of trouble with the king, because it's narrower than my blade, also seemed to have trouble with keeping it even just using the weight of the blade, so I mostly did it with pressure which seemed to keep it even. Probably did 40 laps just on the 6000. I wasn't satisfied with shaving my arm hair test, so I did some circles on the 1000 grit then went back to the 6000 and did the best I could trying to do an x pattern, although I think the sharpening wasn't perfectly even. Then I finished on the Welsh which I think I did okay on because it's plently wide. Finally, did about 40 laps on each side of the leather paddle strop.

Ok, so I spent all my money on buying all this stuff, so I decided I'd buy a shave brush and soap later. So instead I just used cream from the can I had left. Lathered up my face like Santa, took out the dovos, and then tried shaving with the grain. Just about nothing. Against the grain wasn't much better, but after a few minutes with very slow moving I did manage to cut below the chin although it felt like the hairs were being pulled out more than cut. The moustache, which probably has my coarsest hairs, didn't really cut at all.

I'm in South Korea and my wife is pissed about all the money I've spent, so I need to try to work with what I have if it's possible. Any tips? Should I always be keeping the blade flush to the stone or should I hone at a bit of an angle? I did it flush but it didn't seem to sharpen up much.

Thanks for any tips you can give...