Thread: How did barbers hone a wedge in the olden days?

Gentlemen, angry men, stupid men, and women.

Talk about off topic, there are 17 out of 21 pages here that are gloriously erratic. I love the interchange of information, and my mantra is "content over comment". But I got to say that some fellows post like they are just padding their “Postings” tally.

Essentially what we see here are fellows who have commented on the use or practices of something that they have not actually tried or tested out themselves. Honing razors is less about theory and more about doing. Content over comment. I am not going to single out any one person, or more, who has just thrown out someone else’s hands on experience, aka Empirical Evidence. We have just taken 2 ½ weeks and counting, and over 200 posts to prove my exact point.

In the golden age of wedge razors, most barber were using concave hones.

Apparently the greatest minds in Europe had not yet discovered the 3 Stone Method of lapping stones because they only described a 2 stone method (post #42. Perret describes on page 8 how to get a hone entirely flat. He tells the reader to use pumice to flatten the hone and if necessary to eliminate any scratches left by the pumice by rubbing 2 razor hones together. No sandwiching a pumice between 2 razor hones.)
and I think we are close to exhausting the fact that rubbing two stones together will not really create two flat stones. Going to a local grinding stone is not a guarantee of ending up with a flat hone either no matter how romantic an idea that sounds.

We all prove it everyday to ourselves, honing a razor on a flat hone will dish the stone more and more with each pass. If you think that this is false I challenge you to stop using your DMT’s for a month.

With all this in mind I challenge anyone here to try and hone a wedge on a flat stone with no tape, and to try and hone a wedge on a concave stone with no tape. I especially challenge those here, lowly members and Administrators to do this so that they can speak ye or ney as to benefits of doing so, and to allow them the benefit of speaking with empirical knowledge on the subject.

I here and now withdraw the polite wording in my post #59 because if anyone claims now after these 220+ posts that barbers in the 1750 to 1840 did not use concave stones, then you are hypocrites.

Remember, this original post was. HOW DID BARBERS HONE WEDGES IN THE OLDEN DAYS?

If this post and this thread are removed or deleted I think that a sham is afoot.

With my best regards,
Alex

P.S. If a couple of you fellows don’t have 3 Norton stones of the same grit to test out the 2 & 3 stones methods, ask Lynn, he’s got to have a few you can borrow.