I've just now been able to go thru my father's things after he passed last year. He was an old school barber of fifty plus years. Anyway, I've got his chair, ten or so razors, all his tools etc.... I knew enough to look for burs on the razors before I started to shave with it. Did pretty good for not knowing anything (he never taught me, I wouldn't have been patient enough anyway). Anyway, I'm on my fifth day and this morning I noticed that the razor isn't "sharp" so to speak.

I'll admit, I didn't know how to strop (just read that technic). My father's strop clipped to his chair, and it has a canvas strop also. Is this the linen you all talk about? Looking at the pictures you all posted I now know what a hone is (I'm so soooooo happy I didn't try to sharpen the razors on my knife stone). I'll look for it tonight when I go thru his things again.

Anyway, the razors 'seem' sharp (they are after all razors) but how do you know if the ARE sharp?

Thanks in advance, glad I found this site.

johnjohn