Thread: Bare Bones Minimum

You have to remember many of the folks on this site are in to this stuff as a hobby or have an obsession over differing aspects of it.

People were shaving and maintaining straights when it was the only way to shave and they did it with one simple hone. Really, if you have a Norton 220/1K and a Norton 4K/8k you can do everything from full restorations to touchups and never need anything else.

Once you become taken in by this stuff you become a slave to it and wind up on and endless road to find the ultimate.

Happily I never fell for all of that. Har har.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You have to remember many of the folks on this site are in to this stuff as a hobby or have an obsession over differing aspects of it.

People were shaving and maintaining straights when it was the only way to shave and they did it with one simple hone. Really, if you have a Norton 220/1K and a Norton 4K/8k you can do everything from full restorations to touchups and never need anything else.

Once you become taken in by this stuff you become a slave to it and wind up on and endless road to find the ultimate.

Happily I never fell for all of that. Har har.

I also come in on the minimalist side of things. Three years ago when I converted from safety razors and shavettes to straight razors , I picked up a vintage horse hide strop and a simple coarse/fine wetstone from a local hardware store. The stone was intended to just "get me started" and would soon be replaced by the Norton 4K/8K rig in due time. As time passed however, it became apparent that the simple hardware store wetstone was all I would need. It has rescued at least two dozen Flea Market razors to date and I seem to log pretty consistently effective and enjoyable shaves. If a razor begins to pull, I just give it a few laps on the fine side of the stone and I'm back in business. No, not top shelf gear by any stretch of the imagination but hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You have to remember many of the folks on this site are in to this stuff as a hobby or have an obsession over differing aspects of it.

People were shaving and maintaining straights when it was the only way to shave and they did it with one simple hone. Really, if you have a Norton 220/1K and a Norton 4K/8k you can do everything from full restorations to touchups and never need anything else.

Once you become taken in by this stuff you become a slave to it and wind up on and endless road to find the ultimate.

Happily I never fell for all of that. Har har.

Sadly when we go far enough down the acquisition route many of us learn that we have gone too far... even though some of my razors seem better off the shapton 16k & 30k really they are not all that much better than off my old reliable coticule. and somedays i wonder what all the stone and plate fascination was all about. one lives and learns.

Doing this as a hobby we can tend to take it farther than we need. Do I need 11 razors to shave with? Nope. Do I still get razors when I am out and about and see one I fancy...Yep. If it is what you wanna do then do it. It is fun to get new razors, try new soaps, see which stones give you a better or more comfortable edge.

Barbers know what they are/were doing. It's really that simple to maintain a razor. The problem is that sharp razors don't arrive from the heavens with a lightning clap from God. They are honed like that. So you can sit and wait for a honing expert in horse drawn cart to pull along side your 1890s barber's shop, or, you can hone it yourself. Then sadly, you just maintain it yourself. I do know one very well known gentleman, on another forum that sold his 4k stone and then promptly dropped and chipped his razor. Kind of funny actually.

I genuinely think it's silly to put a large dollar sign "$" and the word "stone" in the same sentence without getting a little chuckle, but that's just me. I had a friend once that bought an $80k car and wouldn't drive it in the rain.

Another thing to consider with stones is that, no stone, no matter what the cost; is any smoother than the cheapest strop.

I keep the one razor I use up and running with a 3 line Swaty and a CrOx pasted balsa. I don't plan on buying anything else for maintenance as it's not needed by me.

You don't need expensive stones etc, you can send it out once a year to be honed and use pasted balsa in the meantime to maintain. even if you wanted to hone all you really need is a Norton 4k/8k stone (pretty cheap)

Don't believe me, just look at the Janorton challenge thread we honed razors with only a 4k/8k and they turned out pretty durn good

Thanks for all the input, I will probably end up with some "gear" down the road but right know I just want to get started and be effective, not fighting myself or equipment, technique, etc. After I get some experience, then I can make better decisions on the stuff I need (want). That Norton 4k/8k is looking pretty good though.
Jamie