So I'm new to the straight world and was driving around time this afternoon and saw an oldtime barber shop so I decided to stop in and see if they did straight shaves. Turns out they did and the guy told me to go grab my straights and come back and he would show me how to hone and strop. Since I was about 5 minutes away from where I'm staying, I went and got my razors.

I was half expecting him to pull out a whole slew of hones, but (as the other half of me expected) he just pulled out a double sided barber hone and did a couple swipes before taking it to the strop. Then he ran the razor down his thumbnail and pronounced it good to go. I asked him if he ever used any other hone and he said he didn't.

I suppose, since I haven't shaved with it yet, I have no idea how his edge was. It just surprised me, after reading the intricate processes that some guys here go through, that this was all he ever does to his razors.

He did give me a small piece of advice on shaving which was to give a slight angle to the shaving strokes instead of going straight down. I suppose I'll try anything once, so maybe I'll give it a shot next shave.

Thought I would share this observation.

Thanks.