Thread: Curing HAD, what worked for me

Ron,

That's exactly why I enjoy buying and trying stones, though being a Jnat person, I try to minimize the full size ones from a cost standpoint and a bench stone size isn't really a requirement for razors, though it is nice. Of course with any natural stone there is something to be said for buying to quality regardless of size.

I recently picked up a barber size koppa from Takeshi-San that puts a very coticule like edge on razors. Very, very, smooth edges even though the edge tests out HHT4+. Other honerati have tried the edges and agreed with this description, and I'm very glad to have this stone in the stable.

Carry on sir and good hone hunting.

Cheers, Steve

In today's time, we've come up with an enormous number of psychiatric diseases/ailments. I'm not saying they don't exist mind you, I have a few myself. But collections are not that big of a psychiatric condition-disorder as we see it.
I also collect swords. And want more. Always more. But that doesn't mean I intend to use them. Or ancient coins. Or knives, there are plenty for many purposes, but those I use, a kitchen must have sharp quality knives.

Another aspect of HAD or RAD or any X-ADs and collections is the size of your income. If you can buy them and live your life-your family's life with no ill effects/shortages of vital... stuff or decrease the quality of your life because of it, by all means, do so.
And, I've done this wrong, as, there were times where I gave up going vacations for buying a sword (I was about 19), or not eating for 3 days because I had to pay for a stone -funny thing, I can't remember which one- and that's unhealthy (kind of, I needed to lose a few pounds anyway ).
After that, I started using our beloved SRP classifieds (I'm extremely thankful for its existence, I love you guys!), I sell the stones I bought after testing them, and this way I've bought tested and sold almost every stone that was at some point in recent history commercially available without spending more that my base "investment".

My point is, like all psychiatric diseases, if your HAD interferes with the quality of your life, you are doing it wrong, and might even need help.
If not, keep doing it. Besides, the prices of naturals only rise, you can also see it as an investment with guaranteed profit. But if you are doing it for the profit, I'll find you!!!

Originally Posted by Vasilis

Another aspect of HAD or RAD or any X-ADs and collections is the size of your income. If you can buy them and live your life-your family's life with no ill effects/shortages of vital... stuff or decrease the quality of your life because of it, by all means, do so.

[...]

My point is, like all psychiatric diseases, if your HAD interferes with the quality of your life, you are doing it wrong, and might even need help.
If not, keep doing it. Besides, the prices of naturals only rise, you can also see it as an investment with guaranteed profit. But if you are doing it for the profit, I'll find you!!!

You do realise that excessive buying of certain things, mainly merely for the sake of buying and having those things, can be a manifestation of mania, right? And you're saying that, as long as you can afford that, it's not a problem. At least in the case of actual manic episodes, you're right. Excessive, erratic buying of unnecessary goods isn't a problem - it's a symptom.

Now I'm not saying that people who buy lots of hones all have some form of bipolar disorder, or have some sort of addiction. But when I see people buying another Escher (when I know they already have more than one), or razor upon razor upon razor, amassing hundreds, sometimes even thousands of them, I am fascinated by the motives behind it.

Because I have felt the need to stop myself at some point as I felt I was spending money on razors erratically. I couldn't justify purchases any more ('Well, what can I say, I just really like Swedish razors and it was only €35, even though I already have two of those'). Luckily a wise man once told me 'It's ridiculous to spend more than €100 on any used razor; hardly any of them are worth even that much' so I didn't spend thousands of euros on fili's, cotis, W&Bs, Pumis, Jnats, thuris, Heljes and whatnot. I wasn't facing financial ruin. Still, instead of enjoying collecting and having a cool little hobby, I was just throwing money at it because. It felt stupid and pointless. There was no fun, just the amassing of stuff. Which gave me cold shivers, like pea soup to a five year old (and me; it's just gross).

Luckily I never really had that with hones - although I did end up with five coticules at one point; of which I have two full-sized ones left.

After checking myself, questioning every potential purchase, I am back to enjoying cut-throat razors and things surrounding it. I still have a bit of culling to do and a restore pile (it still really is very much a pile, in the most unflattering sense) that needs to be dealt with, but I will probably enjoy those parts too. Because I sat myself down and told myself that I needed to 'downsize and upgrade' my collection, "collection" being the central term.

Representative samples of razors from the main razor producing countries, being Germany, Sweden, Japan, and England; other countries also welcome is where I'm at. I still have to narrow it down a bit.

A bit of advice: sit yourself down and ask yourself why you buy what you buy and get what you get. Answer honestly, no false justifications ('I'm going to try to accurately map the differences between all Solingen razors of all grinds of all manufacturers and every type of Japanese natural hone, so I will need at least two of each to rule out flukes'). Do you get things because you have to, want to, must, feel like spending money on something nice, etc. and do your reasons justify your purchases to you? Be overly critical, as it's really easy to fall into blind self-justification along the lines of 'It feels good so it must be good'. Just because things don't feel like a problem doesn't mean they aren't.

In all sincerity, I'm not judging anyone here. I just think critical self-reflection is a useful exercise in sanity preservation.

If it makes a positive contribution to your quality of life we call it therapy, HAT

Originally Posted by Pithor

You do realise that excessive buying of certain things, mainly merely for the sake of buying and having those things, can be a manifestation of mania, right? And you're saying that, as long as you can afford that, it's not a problem. At least in the case of actual manic episodes, you're right. Excessive, erratic buying of unnecessary goods isn't a problem - it's a symptom.

In the case of mania, the least of your worries should be your HAD and RAD, besides, mania is easily recognizable. An immediate attack from extremely rapid growth of hair on your face on which you have to buy and hone every razor on earth to be ready for it for when it happens, is an unlikely scenario for a manic episode. I was thinking, in the worst of cases, it could be correlated OCD or maybe Aspergers, I wonder if any studies have been conducted on this.
But, hey! Collecting 20 Ferraries makes you an awesome collector, and as long as you can afford them, it's considered normal behavior, collecting 20 hones makes you a hoarder, right?

I was thinking, in the worst of cases, it could be correlated OCD or maybe Aspergers, I wonder if any studies have been conducted on this.
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Could not find any

Fatigue is the cure. I probably have had 150-200 stones over the last 10 years. I still have at least 50 of them.

After all of that, I now look at new stones and say "OK, is it going to actually be better than a stone I already have?"

If not, I let it pass me by...most of the time.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Fatigue is the cure. I probably have had 150-200 stones over the last 10 years. I still have at least 50 of them.

After all of that, I now look at new stones and say "OK, is it going to actually be better than a stone I already have?"

If not, I let it pass me by...most of the time.

That's more what cured mine, I have really awesome stones. Could they be any better then I've got?

Maybe!!!!!

Or maybe in the right hands you have the best!! Tc