Good that you have not really sharpened knives. But I must reiterate, don't rush to learning to hone just yet. The shave mastering is enough to keep you involved for awhile. Learning to re-freshen an edge is the baby step toward honing from bevel to shave ready. When you get to the need to re-freshen all you will need is a barbers hone or a 12k synthetic stone. I shaved for over 10 months before I stepped into the work of honing secure in my shaving skills so as to not worry about technique when I started learning the hones. And let assure you, I am generally the impatient, throw it to the wind type of person but went with caution because I didn't want to spend much more money on having others do the work for me.