Well after shaving with a straight for 4 months I broke down and bought the Norton 4/8. Having watched countless honing videos..big thanks to Lynn and gssixgun..without their videos I would have been clueless...I jumped in and started honing a cheap little mulcuto that I bought on eBay. While I know Lynn emphasizes less is more as far as honing is concerned, for a newbie it's hard to get that less part down. It took me 1 1/2 hours on my first razor. I reset the bevel and went through the pyramid. I know it took a while but when I shave tested it was way better than my other razor. I've honed 7 razors since then and the last one took 20 minutes. Thanks to everyone who posts on this site you all have helped me a lot

Richard