Ignorance, condescension, and false claims should not be the basis for discussion here.
Though pointless to the topic, bloodletting was gone for about a hundred years before barber hones began being made, yet you think I'm the one who needs to be educated. I'm not the one pushing anyone toward any hone. I did not recommend that the OP buy or use a barber hone. I'm not selling anything here. I have given people about a dozen barber hones and only sold just one to a guy who begged me to sell him one. I'm not the one who told the OP to buy another hone. You did that. You also made the false and ignorant leap that my comparing the edge off of an 8k to that from a barber hone somehow meant that I'm pushing or selling barber hones. IF you "care about each members positive experience" so much that you should read a little more carefully. Since you don't, I will repeat the simple fact that I never suggested the OP use a barber hone.
The point that you missed was that millions of people have shaved comfortably with edges that were from hones that were the equivalent of 8k hones for well over a hundred years. The OP has an 8k hone, along with a 4k and 1k. Rather than hawking hones to him, how about we help him figure out how to get the most out of what he has? You claim that I am ignorant, and yet you cling to "facial tolerances and growth" and faces requiring different blades and finishing and base your logic on "common sense" and yet you in your full wisdom tell him to buy a Naniwa 12k. I assume you meant a Naniwa Specialty 12k, formerly the SuperStone 12; but gee, maybe this guy has a sensitive face and needs a Suehiro Gokumyo 15k or 20k, or a Shapton GlassStone 16k or 30k? Should we recommend he buy some Japanese hones and a full set of nagura as well?
The OP sought help here as well as on SRP. He's not sure if he knows how to set a bevel yet. Buying more hones won't fix that. Practice and getting help from others will. That is, if he gets the right help.
Thanks for the so very patronizing advice about doing some reading and educating myself. I already have done that. One bit of reading I highly recommend is the 4/8 JaNorton thread on SRP from 2012.
http://straightrazorplace.com/honing/77726-famous-infamous-norton-4-8-janorton-2012-a-41.html
There are 53 pages of discussions relating to how get the most out of that hone. Remember your "common sense we aren't alike" claim? Well, there were a lot of participants in that thread and the common lesson in it, among all of those people presumed to not be alike, was that with proper honing a Norton 8k can produce a very good shave.