Thread: Day with my Grandfather

So...

I remember when I was a kid my grandfather had a dubl duck in his drawer. He use to shave the kids sideburns with it...it was dangerous and fun. He never really shaved with the straight while I was growing up. The man can put an incredible edge on almost any type of cutting metal, so I thought it would be neat to do a honing day with him.

I brought over my box of goodies. I had my Nortons 220/1k and 4k/8k, I also brought out the Yellow Coticule and an Escher as well as a Franz Swaty. He said it was quite a collection, but which did he reach for?....the Swaty. He said that he and his dad use to hone on a small stone like that.

He took the new dull double arrow and went to town with the swaty. He didnt really do any type of x pattern. It looked like he sharpened it more like you would do a knife, but kept the spine on the stone. I decided to sharpen the other arrow i had with the 1k/4k/8k/coticule. His Sharpness test was shaving arm hairs. I have to say that he was able to get the razor pretty darn sharp on just the swaty. Ill be testing that out tomorrow.

He was going to put some oil on the stone..and I told him it was a water hone. He said that he never really cared what kind of stone it was..that he usually puts what he wants on them. He said he really likes to put dish soap on his stones. I told him how barbers use to put shaving cream on some barber hones. It was a really interesting day with him. He approved of my razor after I was done with it. He also didnt want to use my TM strop. Instead he stropped the blade in the palm of his hand. I do have to say his razor was pretty darn sharp.

After all that...I had to think...You know..they use to only use one stone back in the day and here I had 4 different ones...and he just kinda looked at them and chose the 9 dollar swaty over the 300 dollar yellow coticule.....Just made me laugh.

Thought I would share my great day.

Thanks! Thats great!

Man, I love this story. You'll have great fun passing it on to your grandchildren too!
Stu

Good stuff!

The old pro's vs young pretenders.

Thanks for sharing that!

Picking the inexpensive SWATY over the more expensive hone and then bypassing a good strop for the palm of his hand!! Reminds me of my grandfather, he could make do with anything or nothing and still beat the pants off of you. Did he do an X pattern while stropping or just slap it to it? Any pics?

Wow, how do you strop on your palm?
Great story. I'm envious you can 'trade licks' (guitarist term) with your Grampa.
My Grampa (well that's how I address him) said his father only used a strop!
I told him a strop alone wouldn't bring a dulled razor back to shave ready on it's own, he replied "Well that's all I saw him use" I original thought my grandfather was obviously too young to have noticed the detail (as it were), but, thinking about it, my Grampa was at least 42 when his dad died, so he would have been well aware of what was involved in keeping a blade keen.
M

Great recap Isaac!

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

Wow, how do you strop on your palm?

I can only assume that after several decades of hard work, the palm works just as well as old leather

Great story Isaac! Sure made me miss my grandfather though.