Thank you all for the welcome.

@DieselD: The vendor I plan to buy from hones them to shave ready before shipping them out. As a bonus they are located reasonably close to me, about 2 hours up the road. I'd like to hone my own razors in the future but it's nice to have someplace nearby that offers the service in the meantime.

@HARRYWALLY thanks for the offer of help, I'll probably need to pick your brains once I get going!