Thanks for all the advice, very helpful. It sounds like the 8K Norton would definately be an improvement over what I currently have both in terms of speed and quality of edge. But it also sounds like to get something "wicked sharp" you need something above the 8K, whether it be a barber hone, pasted strops, or a super expensive high grit stone. My new question is if I can go straight from my 6K stone to one of those three options, or if I really need to hit the 8K stone first. I must admit that I kind of like the idea of barber hones, but I have seen on other places on this site that barber hones can be quite iffy when it comes to quality. What are your thoughts?

To Xman, I understand you get what you pay for, but that's my concern, I don't mind spending some money up front, but I want to make sure that it will actually be a decent improvement over my 6K stone, and I am hoping that if I buy the proper item I can get my razor sharp enough to get that high quality shave everybody raves about.

Firestart, at this point, I'm not too interested in razor restoration because I can't even get my new razor sharp enough. However, I have noticed from sharpening other items on my japanese water stones that using the proper grit at the proper point will result in very fast sharpening, but if you move to the high grits too fast, it will take eternity to sharpen a blade. Of course this doesn't come from straight razor sharpening, that may be a different world...