I have recently been listening to the Hal Wilson advice on barber hones.
I bought three hones.
A Shumate hone which is a slate blue/grey in colour.
An Austrian Franz Swaty which is brown in colour.
An Itsapeech which is olive creamy green in colour.
All these hone were unused and so I chose to use water. I put a liquid soap on the hone ( like fairy liquid, the wife has some in a pump action bottle by the sink) as I find the same as with lather it makes the final finish more polished, it acts as a vacuum to suck the blade onto the hone and it makes the honing action a lot smoother.I honed each stone until I colud see grey filings in the clear soapand then lightened the already gentle pressure for two more cycles.
The Shumate is the least smooth stone and sets a good V on the blade.
The Swaty will complete the task putting a mirror finish.
The Itsapeech just adds a bit more shine like a leather strop will do.
I found I had to wash and run a blade over the Shumate and the Itsapeech to remove surface factory grit before showing these stones to my razor.
My razor is now sharp enough to shave with. Which for a novice like me is a miracle Thank you all for your posting without which I would not have made such successful progress.