Thread: Bare Bones Minimum

Back in the day barbers were not buying the equivalent of an ebay special either.

Coticules were not uncommon... I believe the barbers manual mentions some synthetic hones and other naturals like eschers

yes I am also a newb and have been DE shaving for a couple years due to being irritated at the lack of choice and seemingly railroading by the major companies and decided to go retro. I am having to go slow and learn as I go. Hang in there, there is more to shaving than "scraping your face". Thanks for your input.

Yep! I'm getting less scraping and more shaving. I can still remember when I started shaving when I was a teenager all the nicks, cuts, burn ,same things I am conquering now. Except that was a cartridge razor that wouldn't cause an arterial spurt! LOL

Originally Posted by Cfarland

yes I am also a newb and have been DE shaving for a couple years due to being irritated at the lack of choice and seemingly railroading by the major companies and decided to go retro. I am having to go slow and learn as I go. Hang in there, there is more to shaving than "scraping your face". Thanks for your input.

Welcome to the land of obsessives! Enjoy the view!

I've been straight shaving for 1 year and 3 months. I guess I am a bit more than a noobie, but not much. I bought my first razor as a restored razor along with a strop -- cost $45.00. I used that quite a while and started collecting antique store razors to practice my honing on. Along the way, I have collected nearly a dozen such razors all in various states of 'old'. Some had rust some did not and all were dull enough they would not shave arm hair. None of them cost over $20.00 and most were less than $15.00. I also picked up an old 'boss barber hone' -- $10.00 and just 6 months ago a 3 line swaty - $2.00 from the same antique stores.

It takes time with these type of rocks/stones/hones but bringing a razor back from dull to shaving can be done. I notice many of them pull before they shave, but if you keep at it they can be brought to a very smooth shave with just the barbers hones. I have never sent one out yet. I may, some day, just to compare my work with a pro, but I can shave from each of them now and do so in rotation (use a different one every day).

I had one that had a nice chip in the middle of the blade and used a knife hone to trim it out then went to the barber's hone to clean and sharpen. It took time as I said and much more than most, but this one is one of my sharpest and smoothest so far.

Good luck and Happy shaving,
Sgt Scott

I have been straight shaving for years... For years I used nothing but an arkansas and Enders hone. I found this site and bought a razor that was pro honed and found out what i was missing all these years... That is why I now use better stone.. I didn't know, what i did't know about a good shave.

I basically get by with an old two sided barbers' hone. I have a bunch of other hones, but the old bugger gets the job done just fine. It's a funny thing, I was thinking, how much better a shave could I ever possibly want? I just can't imagine getting a better one off a $1000 hone - if such a thing even exists. When I learned to shave with the straight, the gentleman tht taught me, he shaved with one razor (it had belonged to his grandfather and he was my parent's age), had one barber's hone and had one leather strop. I don't think he's even heard of chrox or any of the other things routinely discussed here. Someties we forget what it is exactly we are trying to accomplish here, and how, if we aren't careful, we can over-think it.

Originally Posted by 1sgtscot

I've been straight shaving for 1 year and 3 months. I guess I am a bit more than a noobie, but not much. I bought my first razor as a restored razor along with a strop -- cost $45.00. I used that quite a while and started collecting antique store razors to practice my honing on. Along the way, I have collected nearly a dozen such razors all in various states of 'old'. Some had rust some did not and all were dull enough they would not shave arm hair. None of them cost over $20.00 and most were less than $15.00. I also picked up an old 'boss barber hone' -- $10.00 and just 6 months ago a 3 line swaty - $2.00 from the same antique stores.


It takes time with these type of rocks/stones/hones but bringing a razor back from dull to shaving can be done. I notice many of them pull before they shave, but if you keep at it they can be brought to a very smooth shave with just the barbers hones. I have never sent one out yet. I may, some day, just to compare my work with a pro, but I can shave from each of them now and do so in rotation (use a different one every day).

I had one that had a nice chip in the middle of the blade and used a knife hone to trim it out then went to the barber's hone to clean and sharpen. It took time as I said and much more than most, but this one is one of my sharpest and smoothest so far.

Good luck and Happy shaving,
Sgt Scott

Cool,
I was born and raised in Knoxville, we now live in Michigan for the past 4 years. I sure miss east Tn. and I still bleed a little orange when i nick myself.
Jamie