I'm curious if any of the more experienced honers and users of straight razors here have found over time that a simple system works OK most of the time?

And cheaper as well.

Have any of you ended up with an inexpensive straight razor and either film or one stone and a strop and ended up with a reasonable shave?

I'm guessing "yes" but perhaps not? Obviously members here are "into" shaving so there will be more posts regarding better razors and more hones.

I guess another way to ask the question would be...if you suddenly lost the allure of straight razor shaving but still needed to shave everyday what would you still need?

Once you get a good edge on a razor and once stropping isn't quite doing it could you just go with a few strokes on a "barbers hone" and continue shaving?

Is it necessary to have Norton 4000k/8000k stones for an acceptable shave?

It seems to me (newbie) that the main issue is that new razors don't come ready to shave. If they did it seems to me that keeping them sharp maybe isn't so involved.

Hopefully someone can get the gist of some of the issues I'm wondering about and will have some comments.

I guess I'm also thinking that in the "old days" people seemed to be able to shave without as much "gear".