Shop ready to shave ready?

Dear SRP Forum,

Being a total newbie with straight razor shaving I seem to have a problem that I can not solve by myself.
Since I have been interested in straight razor shaving for a while I have been trying to get the basic knowledge in place before going to purchasing any equipment. About the time I was looking for my first straight razor one of my friends decided to stop his efforts with a straight razor very shortly after he had purchased one. So he gave me his tool.

Even if I understand that it is proposed to start one’s shaving with a ‘shave ready’ razor I took the opportunity to start with this only half a dozen times used razor. It looked nice, very bright blade with no visible flaws. I can shave my forearm hair with the blade but not the beard because it does not glide on my skin as I suppose it should. Also it does not snap my forearm hair in mid air as it should (one of Lynn Abram’s check points in his honing). Hence I assume the razor is not sharp enough.

I have a Cerax combination stone 1K/3K and JCK Special Combination Whetstone 6K/10K.
I have looked at ‘Lynn Abrams on Honing’ instructions (Lynn Abrams On Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki) and videos where he is honing (e.g. Straight Razor Honing-Norton 4K/8K Circle Method - YouTube) and tried to follow these pieces of advice as I have given some efforts in trying to sharpen (or should I use ‘hone’?) it with my tools.
Even if I regularly sharpen my knives and I can get them in good working shape I have not received any visible or feeling differences on my razor blade sharpness so far.

Since I did not purchase a ‘shave ready’ razor as a benchmark I do not know how sharp my tool should be.
Also at the moment it seems to be a bit hard to find a European web shop / seller that can deliver basic level ‘shave ready’ straight razors with a moderate cost (less expensive models sold out). At this point I am not willing to invest in anything else but a good blade. I do not need ivory scales, no golden markings on the blade, no specific top brands etc. - just a good tool to start with.

Hence I would like to ask for your comments and/or recommendations for my questions regarding sharpening and purchasing a straight razor:

How can I find out what does this specific blade need as a sharpening and/or honing? What do I need to do: bevel setting or honing? What tools and methods should I use? How can I see I am doing it right?

If I end up in need to purchase a very basic benchmark ‘shave ready’ blade, what and where should I look for in Europe?

Any comments are warmly appreciated.

Regards,
-Hartzan-

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Birnando is over in Norway, he is probably the closest to you

Just my 2cents but you absolutely require a benchmark razor that's been honed by an expert. I never purchased one that was out of the box ready, with the notable exception of my tamahagane kamisori but that's a special case. Else you'll never have a reference for what 'shave ready' is. In the beginning I'd go easy on trying to hone one yourself, think it's very easy to throw away lots of cash on stones and still not have a shave ready razor. I ship my razors off to this shop in Germany when I'm in Europe and stropping only doesn't get them to where they need to be: Rasurpur.de - Ihre Adresse für die Messerrasur (moderators: I'm not affiliated with that site except as a customer but if I broke some publicity rule, apologies and feel free to delete).

Imho he knows what he's doing.