Thread: Southern Ontario Honemeisters

Hi everyone,

I recently bought my first straight razor while I was in Vegas several weeks ago (from the Art of Shaving), and, after doing my research on this site, asked the ever important question, Is this razor shave ready. The sales associate assured me that it was definitely shave ready. Once I got home to Hamilton Ontario, Canada, I couldn't wait to try my first straight shave. Much like many other first time shavers in this forum, it was a very disappointing ordeal. So I headed back to the internet to discover that, indeed, My razor was not shave ready.

So, as this is my first and only straight razor, I feel that it would be irresponsible of me to try to learn how to hone with it, and I was hoping that there was someone around that knew of a honemeister in either the Hamilton area, or in Ottawa, as I will be traveling there in a couple of days.

Thanks so much for the help (pre-emptevly).

I'm curious as well, thanks for posting the question.

I've got a few razors and am picking up my hones this weekend...some local instruction would be great.

Hey there,

If you want to learn to hone your own razors, there is an incredble amount of information, and some great videos in the Wiki section of the site. I have watched them, and have honed a Shumate back to shave ready based on that information.

As for honemeisters in Ontario (I live in Toronto), I'm fairly sure there are none. However.....if you check the classified section of this site, under the honing/restoration header, you will find Daniel Gauther, aka Floppyshoes, who lives in Quebec. Print off his form, mail your razor and a cheque to him, including return postage, and he will hone for you. I did this with my first razor, and he put a great edge on it.

Hope this helps,
Maxi

Floppyshoes is the only one I am aware of in Eastern Canada that specializes in straights.

Thanks so much for everyone's help!

I went to a knife store near London, in Ingersoll I think, a few weeks ago that offers razor honing and restoration. Also, they sell new and vintage straights and strops. Decent selection of stuff, but I haven't tried anything they've honed.

On The Edge Collectable Art & Cutlery, Canada's Largest Knife and Sword Store

I'm in Mississauga and have been looking for a while myself. It sucks to get a new razor then have to send it out to get it honed. I've got a set of hones and I am getting the hang of it. I still prefer to have the nicer ones done by someone who knows what they're doing.