Quote Originally Posted by vileru View Post
Eventually I'd like to learn how to hone, but I've already planned to wait until 2017 to do so. I travel to Japan often and my next trip is scheduled for 2017 (I lived there for a couple years and my wife is Japanese), and I'm assuming I can get some good Japanese stones cheaper there.

I currently use a 1000 grit King stone that I bought last winter in Japan to keep my kitchen knife sharp, but I assume I'll need finer grits for a straight razor (not to mention, I want my knife sharper, too).

Do people who sharpen knives and straight razors generally use the same stones for both? Fine grit stones aren't cheap, so I want to use the same stones for both if I can.
You can as long as you lap (flatten) the stone when necessary. You would do this whether or not you only honed razors, but especially if honing both knives and razors. Wet/dry sandpaper can be used on a flat surface, or a good diamond plate. Personally I use my 325 diamond plate to flatten stones, and to sharpen my kitchen knives.

Since you have the advantage of going to directly to Japan you can probably get better deals, at least saving on shipping, and maybe customs fees. Look for Atoma diamond plates and Suehiro finishing stones, The Suehiro Gokumyo 20K is the cat's whiskers for a final finisher. Naniwa SuperStones or Chosera, Shapton GlassStones or Shapton Pro are also well thought of.