Curing HAD, what worked for me

So I've been suffering ever since I started straight razor shaving over a year ago. In that time I've acquired 2 Coticules. A size 8 La Dressante bout and a 7x2 La Grise both very different but work awesome.

I've acquired a 6x2 BBW which rarely sees use, it polishes hunting knives sometimes. I've got 2 synthetic combo stones a 400/1000 and a 3000/8000 which I never use. I have been meaning to get rid of them but have never gotten around to it.

I also have a DMT DIA-FLAT , not the 8c but the stupid expensive one that's not noticeably different at all from the 8c, maybe a little flatter but really who is going to be able to tell?

I then ventured into oilstones, picking up an old 8x2 Washita stone, which turned out to be a hell of a stone. Maybe the best stone I own. I then bought an 8x3 Black Arkansas which I am in the process of breaking in, also a real beauty.

Now that's when it hit me. I've got all these beautiful stones, I've got all these beautiful razors. I've got a lot of ways to make a razor shave ready and sharpen knives, tools and scissors for the rest of my life. Why must I keep collecting stones, I already have some that I don't use that often some rarely ever. Sitting around collecting dust.

The part that got me was there is someone out there who could be looking for a stone for whatever reason and why should I have tons while they struggle to find one they can use and one that speaks to them. I'm not saying that I don't need more then one stone. I'm just saying I don't need multiples of the same type of stone or even tons of stones. I know that I am set for life in the stone department. Sure I may want more because I'm always in search of the best edge possible. The best edge possible isn't in having tons of stones, it is in being able to max out the edge on the stones you do have. That is the revelation I had today.


I am no longer going to "collect/buy" stones just to have them and use them once in a while. Not that I originally intended or bought the different hones for that reason, it just ends up like that due to our preferences and what we find out works for us. Some stones just fall into neglect and that's a sad thing which is why i'm going to let my brothers who need them get them and continue to work with the stones I do have until I am satisfied I can no longer improve the edge. I've got a long way to go but I know that having more stones isn't going to solve the problem of not being able to hone or hone well. The stone doesn't make you a better honer.

How have you guys cured had? Or haven't you? :p

I've never been "collecting" hones. I just like experimenting with, or at least experiencing, many different hones. I bring a lot of hones to meet-ups. I mean I have brought a ridiculous number of hones to some meet-ups. It has never been to show off. In fact, sometimes I have been embarrassed that it may have been perceived that way; but the reason that I bring so many hones is so that others can have an opportunity to experience them.

My "HAD" has not been cured, but it certainly has been put on hiatus since losing my primary job last September. I am way behind on experiencing French hones. Oh well.

Easy to cure , I let the man who hones my razors buy them , I still get the benefit of using them to get the edges I want , but hey that's just me , saved my money for other things. But good for you , it takes most a long time to figure out that buying lots of stones doesn't get you better edges, learning the stone you have and maxing it out is benefitting you personally. Tc

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I've never been "collecting" hones. I just like experimenting with, or at least experiencing, many different hones. I bring a lot of hones to meet-ups. I mean I have brought a ridiculous number of hones to some meet-ups. It has never been to show off. In fact, sometimes I have been embarrassed that it may have been perceived that way; but the reason that I bring so many hones is so that others can have an opportunity to experience them.

My "HAD" has not been cured, but it certainly has been put on hiatus since losing my primary job last September. I am way behind on experiencing French hones. Oh well.

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I would like to say Thank-you for bringing your stones to a meet.
You gave me the opportunity to feel the difference between 20 coticules.
Most people would never get that chance. Same type yet large differences.
Your stones/hones are like a traveling library.
What you do in purchase/testing/maintenance/safe travel to meets. Is an act of education and a love of teaching.
If you cease to share, the community as a whole suffers. Who else has such an extensive diverse collection?? That they would travel to share with strangers.
Ok your weird but in a very good way.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I've never been "collecting" hones. I just like experimenting with, or at least experiencing, many different hones. I bring a lot of hones to meet-ups. I mean I have brought a ridiculous number of hones to some meet-ups. It has never been to show off. In fact, sometimes I have been embarrassed that it may have been perceived that way; but the reason that I bring so many hones is so that others can have an opportunity to experience them.

My "HAD" has not been cured, but it certainly has been put on hiatus since losing my primary job last September. I am way behind on experiencing French hones. Oh well.

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I didn't mean to offend anyone here, if you want em, get em. By all means that's a personal choice I just thought I would share what worked to cure my HAD. Experimentation is great, without that we wouldn't know anything or a very limited amount. If I came off as rude or looking down on those who have many stones it isn't the case and I apologize.

Speaking for myself, I was in no way offended and did not take it that way. I, in turn, apologize if I came across as offended.

IMO, as Utopian so aptly covered, it's all about experimenting with stone to steel effect and affect.
I can now get most any razor (Old wedges excluded still) to a shaveable edge with the assortment I have.
But as I get different steels, I do like to trial on different stones. So ark's, coti's, thuri's (still needed), and synth's all have a place, and a time in my shop.
So, to me, this is a chronic disease, if a disease it is. There is no cure, cept time.
Cheers.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I've never been "collecting" hones. I just like experimenting with, or at least experiencing, many different hones. I bring a lot of hones to meet-ups. I mean I have brought a ridiculous number of hones to some meet-ups. It has never been to show off. In fact, sometimes I have been embarrassed that it may have been perceived that way; but the reason that I bring so many hones is so that others can have an opportunity to experience them.

My "HAD" has not been cured, but it certainly has been put on hiatus since losing my primary job last September. I am way behind on experiencing French hones. Oh well.

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Ron

Bring all your car can carry.

Where else can we see and hold stones that we only read about or see a often grainy pic?

I thank you for bringing them.

What Mike said . . . I took the easy way out and bought some lapping film at Lee Valley. After sending a blade out to a local restoration pro, I do not know that I will ever do much beyond "maintenance honing". I ordered an Arkansas stone (hard black) from Lee Valley and expect to have it this week. I will then burnish it with a cheap piece of steel and begin playing with it and the edges of my razors, searching for that elusive "perfect" touch up to one of my edges. After which, it will be learning what works on the different types of blades (wedge, hollow, smiles, etc.) Not sure I will ever buy another stone, but who knows . . .

I went through a stage of collecting a load of different stones and had a bunch for a while (CF's, C12k, Dalmore Blue and all sorts!).

In the end I found I gravitated to the same few stones every time which for me was Shapton 1/4/8/16k and followed with my Asagi. That gets me a killer edge on every razor and I've yet to find one that combo didnt work for.

So in the end I found exactly like you did - That I had a bunch of stones collecting dust so I started getting rid of the ones I wasnt using.

I still have a few of them, but for the most part I've flipped the ones I didnt really use!

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 :p).
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!!! :tameshigiri:

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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!!! :tameshigiri:

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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 :)

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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.

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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? :p

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
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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.

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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.

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

Maybe!!!!!
:w

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

Bear with me, I hope to get there!!
Retirement, boredom, frustrations, all are minor causes of assorted buying syndromes. I look at the buying power of money over the 15 years of retirement. The rate of inflation is about 1% per year..that seems low and it is. The true cost of necessities is not really evaluated by inflation data. Cost of a meal out is double. Tacos..49¢ now 99¢. Cost of groceries is double +. Gasoline cost is triple the $1.15 per gallon when I retired..
So I have to spend a lot to meet daily needs. I still have a little left...........
Ok how does this affect buying? I am accumulating stuff of value to leave something to the kids. They know the value of my stuff and can sell it when i go to a home, the marbles roll to a low spot on the floor, or croak. If money is in the bank over the basic living expenses, it is losing buying power.
And, even if it drops in the pot, There will be folks with money that will buy stuff!
Save your Confederate Razors!:soapbox:
YMMV
~Richard

Richard, I understand your logic! I am a JNat person and am trying to modestly add to my collection (occasionally immodestly as stone offerings and fortune allows). One reason is that nearly all the mines near Kyoto closed long ago, and according to Alex Gilmore (alx), we are looking at the last 10% of material and a lot of it has been picked over. Good material in a regular form is becoming more rare and expensive, so I'd like to put some resources into feeding my HAD in a reasonable way.

Cheers, Steve

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Originally Posted by Utopian

Maybe!!!!!
:w

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The way I see it, the whole stone game, it is like marriage. Trying different stones is like dating. How often do people get married to the first person they date? It takes many dates to find the right girl to get married. In turn trying out many stones is like dating and once you find the right one or ones you get "married" in a sense to it or them as I'm a bit of a polygamist when it comes to stones. I have few that I truly love and use often. For me the search is over, I'll leave the searching to you and the others :p

Have fun guys.

Correct me if I,m wrong , but after your married do you still get to keep all them girlfriends in the shave den? Tc

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Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

The way I see it, the whole stone game, it is like marriage. Trying different stones is like dating. How often do people get married to the first person they date? It takes many dates to find the right girl to get married. In turn trying out many stones is like dating and once you find the right one or ones you get "married" in a sense to it or them as I'm a bit of a polygamist when it comes to stones. I have few that I truly love and use often. For me the search is over, I'll leave the searching to you and the others :p

Have fun guys.

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You obviously only have been married once!!!

I on the other hand have a lot more stones.

Til' death