honing tools

well as alot of you know i am trying to learn how to restore razors. this brings me to the next step of what i need to learn. honing. i have talked to alot of folks about this and this is what i have come up with. please tell me if this is off base or not. i have decided to go with mad made only because i think that there will be less variables verses a natural stone. im not a natural hater, they are more for an advananced honer im thinking. ok back to the task at hand. the first hone that im going to go with is the DMTC325, this should be a nice all round lapper and also good for heavy work. the next hones that i was looking at were the nawina super stones. these from all hte reading i have done seem to be the best bang for the buck. i will be getting a 1k, 5k, 8k, and a 12k. right now i also have a srd barber hone, a old barber strop, and a canvas one. now with these cool will i require anything else to put a proper finish on an edge. like lets say a leather bench hone or balsa wood hone. i need to get a list of stuff that i still need. please any inputs on this would be great. again guys thanks for all the help as this is taking me a bit of time to get all hte money and materals together.

jason

I do not think there is a preset recipe on hones one needs to have to hone successfully. I think you have pretty much all you need to start, and may be you need some finishing stones. With growing experience you will add w/e you find out is missing from your set up.

I would suggest getting the highest grit hone on your list first and work your way down. That way if your babers hone isn't enough to get an edge shave ready you have the next step down to go to. It also means that if you run out of money before you buy the whole set you still have part of a usable progression.

I learned this by doing the opposite. I only recently bought a mid range combination hone. For many months I have had a big gap in my honing progression.

ndw,

the hones that i listed are the ones im going to buy i have the money for those. i was wondering if there was anything else i was missing or needing.

main,

i was also thinking about getting a 16k down the road i will see how the 12k works out, but i will keep an eye out to see how they work

I think those hones would do you just fine. If you wanted a balsa strop just find a hobby shop that deals with model airplane fliers and get some aircraft balsa and glue it to a base. Put some chrom ox or diamond paste on it and your good to go.