Lots of information so far. There are way too many honing options, and everyone has an opinion that their method is the only one that works 'best'.
I suggest researching those who hone and/or restore straight razors as a professional. They have YT videos and/or tutorials on their website. Another route is following what an artisan straight razor forger would do, they want you to have a good shave the very first get go, so they have to be able to hone well also as part of their craft. Several have maintenance videos on their websites.
We have a professional honer here at TSD that participates in the straight razor thread, Glen Mercurio,
@gssixgun. One that's retired is Lynn Abrams. These two guys have lots of videos. Professionals like Razor Emporium, A Sharper Razor (which is an outlet of Wet Shaving Products), Classic Shaving and many more.
Now....for my opinion
Strops are required, choose what you like and fits the budget. Many say a minimum is a linen/leather combo.
I am a true believer that straight razor honing and maintenance does not have to be wildly expensive to achieve awesome results. In order to know what a real edge felt like, I had Glen do a hone/rescale on my Friodur. It's awesome. Then, my job was and still is to match it for my other couple dozen straights/kamis. I do have some history here....loved keeping all my own knifes sharp since I was a teenager.
Have I spent too much for SR honing, yes, initially. But....knowing what I do now, the total of
stones that I use when required is less than the Blackland Tradere, which retails at $265. My setup now for honing is a mix of a bevel set stone, in case I mess up (drop or ding) an edge, and a finishing ceramic stone with a slurry stone. That's it for stones
in use. I should probably BST the others. I'll add that I have an extra linen strop with chromium oxide, and a diamond pasted strop setup (4) for in between honing on stones. Count those, it's an added ~$90.
@Trigger decided to go with films. His expenditures are about 25-30% of what I did. Absolutely nothing wrong with this option. It works and gets the job done.
And then....there's all those other esoteric options for the final 1% of edge finishing that get wildly expensive, and those who spend that amount of $ usually feel better self justifying it. Does it make a better edge?
As our
@Terry always made you wonder.....I'll leave it with.....
Well........
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