Thanks for the advice on this guys it's appreciated, against some of the advice I decided to get a 1k stone as I have a few cheap chinese razors around that I'm willing to sacrifice to it in the process of learning to hone. My reason for the stone is that whilst I'm more than happy to send the blunt ones out for a honing I would like to be able to go from start to finish restoration without having to send the razor out to have sharpened. Just for my own sense of satisfaction and to say "I did that and I'm proud "