Bare Bones Minimum

OK, I'm a newb. Got a really cool beast of a blade from my father-in-law that I am restoring. In the mean time I snagged a little dudley's barber vintage that is in ok condition to get by. I also scored a vintage from a neighbor who has been a barber for 45+ years. I was quizing him on honing and stropping. When asked if he used 1000-8000 stones, coticules, jap/chinese water stones etc, he just looked at me like I was silly. He said all he ever used were barbers hones and a good strop. What gives?
I wanted to get into the SR thing to keep from buying stupid mach 40 11 whatevers at $16 a whack, plus I think SR shaving is neat and It should be a skill to keep around in this high tech gizmo dominated world. When I started researching what it is involved in getting started - WHOA! all these guys on youtube and in articles, they've got hundreds maybe thousands in stones, hones, strops, paddles etc.
How did the old school barbers do it? I wouldn't think they spent that kind of money, or that kind of time in getting a razor sharp enough to split an atom, would they?
Again, I am new, so just trying to get my feet wet in this SR/wet shaving thing, but I don't want to get drowned. Any advice would be appreciated. As I grow in this deal, I may end up one of the guys that has all the "stuff" but right now I just want to be a do-it-yourselfer and not have to send my razors out either.
Look forward to hearing from ya'
Jamie

I just picked up a barber's hone on ebay last week but I'm going to need some guidance on how to use it. I'm a newb too, but I think the stones are for more serious restoration of a blade. I could be all wrong on that, though.

You don't need to use the 1000/etc stones normally. They are for re honing a razor, for day to day shaving all you need is a razor and a decent strop. You use a barbers hone to bring the blade back every so often when it starts to pull or tug but you can also use a piece of pasted balsa.

We like our toys and we are always chasing that perfect shave hence more and more high tech stones etc, but at a min all you really need is a razor and strop.

Good luck :)

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Originally Posted by barbiesdude

I was quizing him on honing and stropping. When asked if he used 1000-8000 stones, coticules, jap/chinese water stones etc, he just looked at me like I was silly. He said all he ever used were barbers hones and a good strop. What gives?

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That's all you need to keep a sharp razor sharp . It's really THAT simple . It seems to be human nature , to take the simplest things , and complicate them to the farthest degree .

Glen, aka gssixgun, has a great video on you tube on using a barber's hone. It's easy to follow and helps a lot. Just go to you tube and type in using a barber's hone; it's there.

This link may or may not work due to my technical limitations:

gssixgun Barber Hone.wmv - YouTube

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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

I am not a SR expert but I figure I would just throw my cents in haha. My opinion is that "back in the day" those barbers werent spending the hundreds of dollars on product NOT because they wouldnt want/need it as much as it just didnt cost that much back then(again I am not even sure if they had XXXXX grit stones back then just saying) The way the dollar has gone to the crapper what we call a $100 blade they prolly spent $10 on? Maybe less? Things were "cheaper" back then, but not really since most people weren't making as "much" money as we are. Back then people would work for $20-40 a day and be pretty comfortable, where as today getting $20 a day would force you to get food stamps or other aid.

All that is said to add to what everyone else is saying. One doesn't always need that extra bit of tech, its more of a kicks and giggles/hair splitting(pun intended) kinda deal haha. "Do I NEED that $5000 camera?" ... "Nah but some of those new upgrades would get me another half a stop of light so I wouldnt have to steady my hands as much..." Thats my... few hundred cents ;)

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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

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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

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Originally Posted by stevenbrandt

I am not a SR expert but I figure I would just throw my cents in haha. My opinion is that "back in the day" those barbers werent spending the hundreds of dollars on product NOT because they wouldnt want/need it as much as it just didnt cost that much back then(again I am not even sure if they had XXXXX grit stones back then just saying) The way the dollar has gone to the crapper what we call a $100 blade they prolly spent $10 on? Maybe less? Things were "cheaper" back then, but not really since most people weren't making as "much" money as we are. Back then people would work for $20-40 a day and be pretty comfortable, where as today getting $20 a day would force you to get food stamps or other aid.

All that is said to add to what everyone else is saying. One doesn't always need that extra bit of tech, its more of a kicks and giggles/hair splitting(pun intended) kinda deal haha. "Do I NEED that $5000 camera?" ... "Nah but some of those new upgrades would get me another half a stop of light so I wouldnt have to steady my hands as much..." Thats my... few hundred cents ;)

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well as we all know from our old razor boxes most of were sold for $4 or less most of mine say $2.50 or $3 and i have an old "shilling razor" it is a 7/8 chunk of old Sheffield. back when razors were popular they were just tools not collectors items.

that said i have shaptons, coticules, dmt plates, barbers hones and thuringens. most common used hone: 6x2 combination coticule. it stays on the sink.

Something to consider about "back in the day" when a razor cost three bucks. In some cases that was a day's pay. A pocket knife with a lot more parts to fit and finish cost fifty cents. The cutlers that ground razors were the highest paid of the cutlery profession. A razor was a tool to be used and it was an investment as well.

My great grandfather, carried a straight razor, a small hone, a little mirror, a tin cup, and brush in his saddle bag. He used the saddle cinch for a strop. Every picture I's seen of him he was clean shaven. I wish I had his shaving gear but it was lost in a house fire a long time before I was born. The reason I know this is that my grandfather relayed that information to me many years back before his death. Those guys may not have gotten the super shaves from razors we are getting today, but they made do with what they had.

BTW, I watched a NOS Northfield single blade jack with ebony handles and the original paper wrapping sell for over four hundred on ebay a few months back. That knife probably sold for twenty five cents when it was new.

I've maintained and set bevels out of necessity on barber's hones as that is all I own at the moment. I intend to buy a set of Naniwa stones simply because they get work done SO much faster and easier. I like fooling with these things and hope to buy, restore, and sell a few here and there to help fund my madness.