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I've been watching this forum for well over a year now, and B&B as well. And fleabay. I note that the selling of razors significantly outpaces the selling of hones. Good hones is slim pickins'...particularly the natural...relative to razors.
Why is that?
Swag, most razors are for Me2's and others for accumulations...only a few for shaving.
So, guys with rocks in their heads do get a lot and that before anybody else can.
I can think of four guys I know with over 50+ stones mostly from the wild. Some even use them.
So for every guy wanting a natural hone there are few available. Mostly for the kids college fund!
The modern man made's are pretty good to great so the rock hounds are getting the naturals.
FWW. I put about 12 thousand miles, or more, a year chasing the rainbow. That is a lot of antique stores visited and revisited!
If a stone has your name on it, it will show up!
~Richard
I'd have agree with Geezer on that.
So much truth there....me being a rock hound and all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geezer
Another point to note is when razors were in use everyone had a razor but a lot went to the local barbers or the cutler to have it touched up or re honed. It wasn't necessary for the average man to hone as the service was so easily available
Well, pragmatically a hone can sharpen many razors, so once you get a set of hones you are done. But too many razors is never enough...
James.
lol...I'll turn that around on you. You never know when the next hone will be the unicorn letting you get an edge one molecule wide.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
But another razor is just one thing needing sharpening! :chapeau
True too but only if you are chasing the "ultimate" edge whatever that may be. Personally I'll settle for a good shaving edge and another razor or three.Quote:
Originally Posted by jgjgjg
Bob
Well one hone can hone many razors, so there are far fewer hones than razors.
Another fact of life is that natural stones fine and pure enough to hone a straight razor were in general about 1% or less of all natural sharpening stones - they are not common in terms of mining production.
I hesitate to buy razor hones off the forums because hone nerds - me included - don't sell our best natural stones. Those are the ones that work best for us and that we had to maybe buy several expensive stones and kept the ones we believe are best.
I thought maybe the skyrocketing price of labeled Eschers would cause a few to show up for sale, and maybe it has, but you just don't see that many really nice ones being turned loose by the honerati.
Cheers, Steve
I'll venture to say that it could be also that (natural) hones are harder to sell for a decent price? You almost have to know someone personally or trust them enough to know you're getting what you're looking for. A razor's value is more evident just from the pictures. I've bought a couple hones just through private conversations over time while discussing what I was looking for.
But they do show up. I bought a labeled Escher off craigslist from a gal who owned a thrift shop, but didn't even have a way to take a credit card. It took us about a week to work it out but finally got it. You just gotta keep looking!
That's very true, especially of Jnats. The Japanese will pay far more than most any of us because the best stones are the tools of journeymen craftsmen and as such command a price like a good bandsaw or table saw which we have less ideoligical problems paying for.Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyalCake
Browsing a Japanese shop inventory I saw a nice large (as in 8"x8"x2") suita at $6000, and a good Hatahosi-branded Hatanaka bench stone, $4000 and up. These stones would be practically impossible to sell in the West, so we tend to see stones that are cheaper because of lines, irregularities, imperfections, missing corners, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing as that $4000 benchstone quality may be only $250 if it is an irregular koppa in the barber hone size.
Cheers, Steve
I am perhaps fortunate. I love to drive and so make a lot of stops at antique stores. My average quality natural stone costs about 5K miles and some change! A good barber hone is more like 2Kmiles and some change
There is a reason naturals get a high price, the time spent accumulating them and lapping them is not considered by most looking for a good deal on the 'bay. As with any skilled hunting, getting to know what they look like in the wild with all the camouflage that time and tribulation can add to their look takes a long time. I look back and there were a lot of them that got away!
YMMV!
~Richard