Awesome thanks so much cashmore and everyone else!! You guys are all life savers!

I think I'm going to go simple for now and just go with sharpening stones. I'll look into strops and paste rubs for later when I figure out what I'm doing.

Now final questions:

QUESTION 1/2: Is a 1k stone absolutely necessary? If so, what is a good recommendation that won't break my wallet? (<$15-20)

QUESTION 3: What mineral oil should I use? This was in the recommended items section for the norton stone I was looking at. Is it any good? http://www.amazon.com/Norton-Sharpe...ie=UTF8&refRID=1QBQHSHDHS3F40GQ5FGC?