Use your common sense with the more difficult ones. I don't think Glen is saying you can't have a go at the "restorer's dream" razors off ebay, just that they probably shouldn't be your first intro to straight razor honing if it can be avoided. At some point you do have to try a restoration hone I reckon, even if it is just to say you've done it, but if by that time you have developed the requisite honing skillset the job's easier and less prone to ruination.

I have to say, and probably Glen would have had this issue too back in the day also, that when I first started there was not a tonne of info out there on straights (or at least I didn't know where to find it) - I think SRP was either in its infancy or about to start up. My first few razors were the un-awesome kind off ebay and a brand new Dovo bought from a shaving store. Perhaps counterintuitively, that Dovo was actually the worst thing I could have bought because I thought that was the standard of edge required on a straight razor, never understanding that the factory only really did a rough bevel job and nothing more! So I laboured for a long time teaching myself how to hone on these crap razors using a crappy-edge razor as the benchmark. I got there eventually, but if I had had the resources of a place like SRP back then I think I could have saved myself months, if not years of heartache and pain.

What's the point of my ramble? Dunno...I'm an old man now and I'm allowed to both ramble and talk about the good old days. Go hone a razor whippersnapper.

James.