Thread: Thoughts on Honing and Restoration Services

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

Ummmmmm.... Bart? Would you mind telling me where in my bathroom you have hidden the microphone??

It's installed, together with a mini-camera, in the spacer and pin of the first razor I honed for you...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

When I see threads like this one: http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbi...rst-shave.html

it finally prompted me to write some thoughts down...

As a Restorer and Honemiester we actually take on a huge responsibility by offering our services, especially to the newbies on the forum.... It is up to us to try and make sure that your first experience with a straight razor is as good as we can possibly make it...
I know that I speak at least for all the reputable guys that offer these services, the last thing in the world we would ever want to happen is that you get a bad shave from one of our razors... As far as I know everyone of us test shave every blade we put out there, albeit we do so with an experienced and confident hand, but we know that the razor shaves as good as it possibly can, for us, before we send it back to you... It is impossible for any of us to do more than that, since we are not there with you helping out as you do your prep, lather, and shaving strokes....
I don't think there is one of us that doesn't stand behind their services, fully...
Just keep this in mind, all it takes is a PM to any of us, and we are there to help, I think all of us are more concerned with you loving your new straight razor, than the money we might have made doing the work for you...

Just some rambling thoughts... with no offense meant to anyone!!

You're right in pointing out that there is a lot more involved than owning a sharp razor to achieve a good shave. IMO the honemeister's "responsibility"; since you're using that word, is to get the blade shave ready (assuming there is no serious defect or damage rendering this impossible). Whether or not the owner is subsequently able to get a good shave is as much the honemeister's responsibility as it is the car dealer's responsibility how well you drive: there's a few things you've got to know before you can start shaving, driving or doing other things in life that you can only do under the assumption that you're a responsible, reasonable and well-informed adult.

After having had several razors sharpened by several honemeisters, I'm pretty sure about 2 things:
- they did exactly what I wanted: make the razors extremely sharp and shave ready in the sense that you open the razor and can shave with it right away (within the limits imposed by the blades characteristics such as condition, steel quality, age, structural integrity, etc. or within the limits they considered best to stay within for the particular blade for various reasons that they explain to you)
- they did not do it for the money (one did it for free, the other did several blades at a substantial discount). Nobody who isnt passionate about straight razors would go through the time and trouble of setting bevels, honing, stropping, test shaving, doing more honing and stropping, answering countless PMs, wrapping and sending the razors to make a few bucks.

Originally Posted by Cornelius

Nobody who isnt passionate about straight razors would go through the time and trouble of setting bevels, honing, stropping, test shaving, doing more honing and stropping, answering countless PMs, wrapping and sending the razors to make a few bucks.

Finally, someone who understands.

i posted that wondering about human error...my mistakes, not commenting on the service which i found fast, and exceptional as i later put.

If you could close that thread it would be appreciated.

Please understand, Jo3 no one here on this thread I can assure you is singling you out or jumping on you. Just as Glen clarified.

I've said this before multiple times. I give great props to you "Honemeisters" who offer your services to the public. I feel is does say more about your dedication than it does about money. There's no such thing as a full time Honemeister who gains all of his income strictly from honing razors.

You could call me Mr. Analogy. Most men shave. Most men drive an automobile. I drive a manual transmission vehicle. I can virtually guarantee that if I was given the opportunity to drive a finely tuned professional high speed race car, if I could make the thing even go at all the first few times, I'm sure I'd be disappointed or at the least, I know that I would not be able to master that machine without learning how to drive it (shave with a straight vs. shaving with other methods I was used to) and I would be wrong if I blamed the car or the mechanics for my disappointment.

That's a HUGE challenge that a honemeister has: Honemeisters are up against inexperience. I tip my hat to you guys because as every one of you that I've ever known have said repeatedly, you're more than willing to work with someone new/inexperienced to help them along. Lynn was the Honemeister that provided my only Honemeister honed razors (2 of them at different times) and he gladly touched up the edge of my first one that I screwed up out of the gate with improper stropping.

Heck, I've been shaving this way daily for about 1 1/2 years and I still have subtle shaving discoveries and still do not consider myself a Shavemeister with absolute perfect mastery. Don't get me wrong, shaving this way is second nature, comfortable and relaxing. I even find myself totally in tune to shaving during the shave and yet find myself so deep in thought about something non-shaving related that I was in tune to shaving on a deeper level. That's a form of mastery to some degree.

Chris L

Chris L