Disclaimer: I'm a complete newbie to honing. My Norton combo stone arrived just few days ago.

I was wondering if it's even possible to hone a dull (I can easily "put my finger against it and not get cut") Stainless Steel (!) razor with a 4000/8000 Norton waterstone. Do I perhaps need to order a 1000-grit hone, or would 4/8 combo do? I don't mind about wasting my time with it since I think I already did that yesterday

At least it seems to take forever to get anywhere. I've been able to get the edge to shine quite nicely and it even cuts _some_ hair when waving the razor around over arm hair. But mostly the hairs just bend down when they meet the razor.

I've done at least 100 strokes with the 4000-grit and almost as much with the 8k one.

Should I just continue?

Thanks,
Monco