Thread: Straight Razor Maintenance for the Common Man in Years Past

Originally Posted by razorguy

Most of the times the tools were self made, including hones.

Do you mean hones were made or were they cut from the rocks?

My mother told me that her uncle who was born in the late 1800s took his razors to a barber. I have a Dutch barbers' manual that mentions barbers honing for customers. It also mentions barbers weren't too happy honing customers' razors because the cutting edges were often in a very poor state and took a lot of time for little money to get in good working order again.

Many barbers had their razors honed by folks who traveled around doing this for a living. I guess like everything else some liked doing it and some didn't.

I have heard about many people who were using loose abrasive particles, on a flat piece of wood. Be that sand, emery powder and many other types of abrasives, with ranging grit. And, of course, there where stones, coarse medium, fine and finishers. 200 years ago, woodworking tools needed to be sharp, as did knives. Some great wars where fought, in many continents. And, then, the sword was still in use. That means, a lot of steel needed to be removed to make their edge sharp. For millions, I would like to think, swords. And, that means, abrasives had to be readily available, so did the know how. Today, the majority of people haven't even touched a sharpening stone, and, after all, why should we-them?
I don't think that someone needed internet to found out what stone he needed to sharpen-hone his tool. Rural areas or cities, people with the knowledge existed, and I doubt they were reluctant about sharing their knowledge.
I think, it was kind of like today. If someone was willing to spend money, and search for stones (or powders), buy them or find a piece somewhere, he could.

Originally Posted by Kees

Do you mean hones were made or were they cut from the rocks?

Both. They were sometimes cut from the rock and then flattened an shaped in order to be used as a hone. The same was true for scythe and other cutting tools: they were sometimes honed with a self made hone.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Many barbers had their razors honed by folks who traveled around doing this for a living. I guess like everything else some liked doing it and some didn't.

This is also true and this is, for example, what Mastro Livi's father and grandfather were doing. They were usually visiting barber shops and offered their professional skill to hone razors and scissors. Mastro Livi too personally did this in his youth and before the "straight razor" was banned from barber shops by law.

What I want to know is how the Egyptians cut 100 foot long slabs of granite that weighed 60 tons as well as 2 million limestone blocks without modern tools or equipment(no steel yet) to build 1 pyramid. 20 years and 300 blocks a day at 7 days a week with the top blocks averaged in(much harder to the higher you go). I guess the honing sounded easier.

Originally Posted by bill3152

What I want to know is how the Egyptians cut 100 foot long slabs of granite that weighed 60 tons as well as 2 million limestone blocks without modern tools or equipment(no steel yet) to build 1 pyramid. 20 years and 300 blocks a day at 7 days a week with the top blocks averaged in(much harder to the higher you go). I guess the honing sounded easier.

I do study the history of my city since a very long time now (here in Perugia lived Etruscans, about 3000 years ago) and they built magnificent arcs, temples, buildings and tombs. I have always believed ancient civilizations were "more modern" than what we would ever believe or think. Egyptians too, of course.
In many regards - including civilization, technique, art and social organization - we are a lot behind than those ancient people.