Thread: Honing now vs long ago

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Indeed, but man-made hones such as Frictionite are far newer than the olden days I was referring to!

Okay so going back farther,,, another lesser know fact is that the first wheel was invented to grind razors. Again man made but of natural substance. The story goes that they had to make about 30 before they finally got a hole in 1 so 2 guys could hold a stick through the middle of it while one guy spun it for the grinder. They realized it was to much effort to sharpen sea shell so they set it down and forgot about it. Mr. Barrow later came by and found it with the stick still in it and well .. the rest is history.

the first reference i find regarding arkansas stones used by european americans is in 1819 by a man traveling through the south who stayed with some plantation owners who used the aforsaid stones.likely they where used several years prior to his writing.you can find his name/writings by calling the arkansas public library call center and getting literature.i cant be bothered to do it again.best regards -CAM-[emoji4]

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Okay so going back farther,,, another lesser know fact is that the first wheel was invented to grind razors. Again man made but of natural substance. The story goes that they had to make about 30 before they finally got a hole in 1 so 2 guys could hold a stick through the middle of it while one guy spun it for the grinder. They realized it was to much effort to sharpen sea shell so they set it down and forgot about it. Mr. Barrow later came by and found it with the stick still in it and well .. the rest is history.

That's about the time in history when the fellows started having 'singeing parties'.
they would sit about the fire taking flaming sticks out and burning off hairs of one another, extinguishing the flames with water heaved and soothing with animal fat. Much grog was consumed! Ahhh! The good old days!

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The difference between Then and Now was really in the razor edge as it came from the factory..

They really only had to maintain the edge, razor came with actual bragging rights about the edges, many were Hair Tested (Sound Familiar) they also had an entire workforce out there called Cutlers that sharpened and repaired tools & knives which back then included SR's unlike today.

But yes many here have taken the edge to an entirely different level then just "Shaving", many here are in it for the Sport of chasing the best edges, it has nothing to do with just everyday shaving for some of us...

funny just the other day i wondered how " comfortable" a shave from the past was !!
i never once even thought about the above , as it makes sense to me .. !! i admit i have honed and the edge not been up to where i wanted it to be and continued to finish the shave .. it was at that moment when my little brain started wondering how sharp was sharp and what was the standard ? ..

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Indeed, but man-made hones such as Frictionite are far newer than the olden days I was referring to!

Pierre Valon received a patent in 1827 for barber hone / artificial stone designed for razors, http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...after-all.html

Jean Jacques Perret devotes a full chapter in his book "La Pogonotomie", about the uses of different materials to use as a pasted strop in 1769.

Surely the old timers were chasing new methods to get a perfect edge beyond the natural stones.

Yes, a concept, but did it work? Frictionite did, but 20th century??

I have to say that the thought that there were not obsessive personalities back then doesn't wash with me.

They may not have had the technology we have today or the openness between countries (eg Jnats would have been around, just not overly accessible or very well, if at all, known outside Japan), but the spirit of enquiry and ingenuity was there in spades, perhaps in even greater quantities than we have now.

I have no doubt there were men who took their edges to the bleeding edge of what was possible back then just as we do now. And in 200 years there'll be a forum wondering if we today were ever able to get our edges as good as they are getting on their Dark Matter hones with pico-technology sub-atomic particle pasted plasma strops.

James.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Yes, a concept, but did it work? Frictionite did, but 20th century??

Dont see why not, they did things back then that we have a hard time to duplicate today.........

Originally Posted by gooser

it was at that moment when my little brain started wondering how sharp was sharp and what was the standard ? ..

What a strange subject for a "little brain" to think about...just sayin'!

Originally Posted by Splashone

What a strange subject for a "little brain" to think about...just sayin'!

Knowing gooser, his 'big brain' was too busy with more important stuff!