Hi there,
Good advice so far. I would just add from my experience that:
Kings are ok, but for same $$ I would take a Norton waterstone in 1k/4k. They wear longer I find. 6k is a bit high for a person just starting out sharpening. Many of the top shelf blade makers in Japan don't go beyond 2k (and don't get anything lower than a 1k until you know what you are doing).
For flattening your water stones (which is a must!!!!! and I do it almost every time I use a stone) a cheap alternative to a dedicated flattening stone is wet/dry sand paper 200grit or 400ish. Wet it, put it on a counter top or piece of glass (whatever it is should be flat) and just rub your stone face down. Make some pencil lines on the stone face first so you can see when all the lines are gone = flat stone. Doesn't get much cheaper or better than that!
BTW, should you want to take one step up from the $35-40 range for a combo stone, the Chosera line is a big improvement.
Good luck on your adventures.
