Thread: La pogonotomie ou l'art d'apprendre a se raser soi-meme

La pogonotomie ou l'art d'apprendre se raser soi-meme is a classic French text written in 1770 on how to learn how to shave oneself and teaches the reader about the use of hones (especially coticules) and how to tell good hones from bad ones etc. and strops and lots of other stuff.

It's available on line: La pogonotomie, ou L'art d'apprendre ... - Google Boeken

Unfortunately it is hard to read for most members. I have been toying with translating this book to make it accessible for all members here.

However this will take quite some effort and time. Time will be a problem for me. Another problem is that my French is sufficient to get the gist of what the author says but I was never taught translating French to English. Therefore my translation might be a bit awkward or clumsy at times. So I'll need someone who takes care of editing my English text.


So, my questions are: 1st: are you guys interested, or do you think the contents of this book add nothing to what we already know? 2nd: are there any members who are willing to help? We might take it in turns, say I translate one or 2 pages, and then another member does another page until we will have finished all 150 pages.

When completed the entire translation might be added to the SRP wiki.

Just to get a flavour of the book I'll give you a translation of the first & second page. I skipped the preface as it is more difficult to translate than the more technical 150 pages of the actual text.

Pogonotomy or the art of learning how to shave oneself

First chapter

On razor hones and their different qualities

Not all sorts of stones are right for the cutting edge of a razor. Those from the Levant (=Middle East) for example have too large pores and create teeth that are intolerable to the face from the first passes onwards. The greenish stones imported from Spain as well as those that are found in the Lorraine (region in France) and also another sort, that's black and originates from England have more or less the same grit; their pores are too compact, they are too soft and cut too hard.
The only stones apporpriate for the cutting edge of a razor are those called Razor Hones. They are found in quarries near Liege and on the banks of the Meuse, the only quarries of that sort in Europe: these hones are usually white: some are milky white, others are yellowish; the latter are from the old rock. A large number of these stones have black spots or black veins. In general there bad ones among the white and marbled ones. But you'll rarely find a bad one among the milky white ones that look cracked and ready to break. These are the rarest, they are called Stones from La Venette.

Nice A translation would be awesome!

Haha old indeed! On the first page, the index "talks" about observations on the "saignée" - bloodletting in English! It is also written in old french but I could very well help with that project... can't really invest a lot of energy into it due to a medical condition but here's what the first page says:

"Pogonotomy or the art of learning how to shave yourself with:

- How to learn types of stones to sharpen all tools and instruments
- How to prepare strop to repair/resharpen razors / How to make good ones (Strops!)

PREFACE

It is, trembling, that I get into this career, where a lot of craftsmen/erudites distinguish themselves; there would be a bit of recklessness in calling myself an author in a century that is as "lightened" as this one (reference to siècle des Lumières / french revolution in the 17-18th centuries) if I didn't have the confidence to give new and useful observations on an Art that I became familiar with, out of habit and that my reflections made me perfect. You shouldn't try to find a pompous discourse in this work: my only goal is to be useful. I'm only looking to express myself in the most clearful way: that is my only ambition. Jealous to get knowledge from the human genre, I will find all that my long experience teached me in an Art that it will always need.

iv
I will start by showing men, the easiest and safest ways to do that mandatory operation with dexterity, exception made of certain particular nations who, jealous of antique customs, think that shaving their entire beard degrades the male "prestige". It is surprising that with the countless number of books that are honoring our literature and all of the universe, that we can't find a simple brochure that teaches the Man, the principles to start early in his youth, to do an operation that he will have to repeat multiples time in a week. You will tell me, maybe, that there are public barbers for ones and valets for others, I know, but what are their drawbacks? How many people by the means of rasors and soaps that were used to shave sick people with scurf patches, pimples and deadly diseases and that made cruel ravages?

It is impossible, even for a handy barber to shave a man with scurf patches and has a face filled with pimples, without cutting them. At this moment, pus sticks not only to the razor & the steel's pores but also on the brush, on the barber's hands, on the soap, in the water and the towel. All the tools you used becomes depositories of particules and will "communicate" dirtiness, unpleasant & shameful illnesses to whom will have the bad fate of getting shaved by the same hand & instruments. Regretfully, not only one man can get infected: even the towel that everybody uses will be enough to contaminate people shaved during that day. What an accident for healthy people with good skin and blood to take such risks! Do you think I don't have any example as to what I'm saying? The fact is sadly too evident.
........

Here's another page. Did you notice that the stone from Liege is the good old coticule? Liege is the first town north of the Ardennes. Problably the coticules once quarried were transported to Liege and distributed from there. The authour goes on telling us how to distinguish a good from a bad one.

Page 3:

Amongst the latter there is the occasional bad one: it contains a very hard pebble and even grains of iron;this is very harmful because you cannot hone a razor without damaging it especially when the grain is in a place that you cannot avoid when honing a razor.
It takes a lot of experience to acquire great knowledge of these stones; to be able to distinguish at a glance a good one from a mediocre and a bad one. The safest way is to find out by trying: by repeatedly honing a few razors on it.
The best indication is a uniform grain with pores that are not to large or open as such a stone is too soft; and to the contrary, a too dense grit that you can only mark with difficulty with a copper needle will be too hard. Therefore you need the mean between those too extremes, that is to say a grit not too dense nor too open that the needle can bite without too much resistance.

Page 4

One can test whether a hone is coarse by passing the thumb nail over it and pushing lightly; by this test one can feel whether it is gritty in which case the nail will run unevenly. It will glide over the hard and over the soft it will drag. On a good hone the rubbing will be even and the nail should be "eaten" gently.
Such a stone is generally half white and half black (1); rarely the black is usable for sharpening, it is either too hard or to soft.


The first sentence of page 5 seems to contradict the 2nd sentence. I could do with some help here. So, PLEASE CHIME IN IF YOU CAN!

Page 5.

However the black spots speckled on the white surface don't differ from the goodness nor the quality of the white itself. Those stones are of no use once all the white is gone and only the black is left.

Was that the bit that troubled you?

Isn't this the book that Arthur Boon translated over on RazorCentral - Home of the straight razor?

Best Regards,
EL

Thanks for the link. I found it once, but I was never able to find it again.

Originally Posted by MichaelP

Page 5.

However the black spots speckled on the white surface don't differ from the goodness nor the quality of the white itself. Those stones are of no use once all the white is gone and only the black is left.

Was that the bit that troubled you?

Yes it was. I got about that far, however the first sentence does not make sense to me. Does it mean the black spots do not interfere with the quality?