Honing issue

[Alum of Potash]

Practice makes perfect. Stick with what you have before ditching everything to enter the rabbit hole. If the bevel (also known as the belly, or B in a line ABC) is sky high, not in line with the edge and spine (AC), take it to the 400 to reduce things so that spine (A), bevel (B), and edge (C) are one. Plenty of practice in so doing, leading to perfection in following the proverb. You may not get there in the end, as others have supposed, but at least you will have got your strokes down before trashing a more valuable razor.

 

[Kyle89]

In regards to stones, I'm afraid you're going to have to put down some cash for quality if you can. The burr method thread has been mentioned which is excellent advice for a cost effective method that works extremely well, although haven't gone that route myself.

Learning and improving honing techniques isn't easy, but it's incredibly rewarding. Once you get that first "good" edge under your belt you won't look back. It will just take some time and work (and mistakes) until you get there. It's a lot of fun and I recommend sticking with it. There's a lot of really good advice on these boards that will help get you there.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Have you watched any videos? These are good, but I would wear shoes:

I ended up grinding the crap out the razor's spine the first time I tried to set a bevel. Went on for an hour with no progress, so I went to bed and came back the next day. After a few tries, I began to make progress. I would start with a razor with little value. Get a loupe and constantly check your progress.

There is no magical secret to doing this stuff. You're just rubbing steel on stone, leather and skin. But there are lots of smaller problems to solve and if you are into this sort of thing it can be very rewarding and fun. And this is a great place to hang out and share your experience.

Good luck!