Thread: Disappointing Puma

It may not be meant to sharpen a razor but it did, quite well in fact. I know I shouldn't complain and I learned a good lesson.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Apparently you got a good razor or someone would not have used it so much.

I don't know about that. To me a bad hone wear is more of an indication of honing incompetence than much use of the razor.

I would tend to agree. The razors I put down over a decade ago show my total lack of skill as the spine wear is atrocious.

Not talking about this razor pictured, where the wear does look unusual for the age of a razor, but:

If spine/hone wear is even over the length of a blade and corresponding to the level of wear on a razor, I don't think it shows incompetence at all. If it's a great amount for a razor that has not been used much, it tells me that someone has honed on too coarse of a stone for general maintenance and with too much pressure on the spine. That's bad.

Uneven spine wear can be from the same, or could be a bad grind.

I can't imagine that people, back in the days when most people used these razors, worried so much about hone wear as we do now - choosing to use the razors as a matter of utility and not collection, and buy another razor when they wore their razor out - after eons.

If I were honing razors for someone else, I would tape them but only because that's what people seem to expect. The razors that I've been using daily (one in particular that gets at least 80% of my shaves on a daily basis), I never tape. It never sees anything but a maintenance hone, and shouldn't need to ever see more, as I shave it straight off the stone (so there's no pastes or powders rounding over the edges creating a lot of need for metal abrasion).

Anyway, it looks like a good razor with (a lot of) cosmetic wear. I couldn't think that what's on it would prevent it from being a great shaver. .

It's not at all worrying about hone wear, the fact is that maintaining good razor shave ready takes very very little work on the hones. You can hone it weekly for a hundred years and the width won't be reduced by more than 1/32".
Now, abusing the razor by say putting a chip on it, or letting it rust is a whole different story. And I can not think of a single reason for hone wear that's not even.

At the end of the day it's possible to shave with any piece of good steel of reasonable size, but that doesn't mean it should be the preferred way of shaving.

I was following the same razor on eBay. When the price had been lower I really considered going for it ... But when it stayed low it started to scare me off. Shame it didn't work out for you. It really did look like you might have gotten a buy!
Sorry.

Originally Posted by gugi

I don't know about that. To me a bad hone wear is more of an indication of honing incompetence than much use of the razor.

But, of Course!

I don't know what qualifies as "bad" honewear.

It's preferable to get a razor that his little wear, period.

But if I'm going to get one that's well worn, I don't mind if it has hone wear on it that keeps the bevel angle at the edge of the razor the same as it was factory new.

If it gets shallower because of excessive wear, that's bad. If the razor is worn significantly and taped every single time it's ever honed, the steeper bevel angle isn't going to be that great, either.

I haven't shaved any razors down to stubs yet, and my regular routine puts little wear on them. But I don't tape spines, either. I can't imagine that many people were sitting around in the 1800s taping spines.

I am of the opinion that Puma is good, high quality, but overrated. If they are in fancy scales, the cel rot gets them. The telling thing here is that Pumas must bring a vison of a large Puss swiping away the hairs! Any time one comes up, it brings high dollar, in spite of it's condition. I would take a Henckels any day!

Lol! Well aside from being a WB and DD fan I'm just getting back into straight razor shaving. I am looking to slowly build a collection of good solid shavers. I'm not interested in jewel encrusted scales and the like but would like to have a good if not exceptional example of various manufactures