Thread: Honing on a Bottle

On a thread from long, long ago, I read that someone's grandfather recommended honing on a bottle as to the finish. Not that it necessarily yields a decent edge by contemporary standards, but the recommendation has piqued my curiosity. Anyone played around with this? My subsequent questions have to do with whether or not the bottle as traditionally used would have been round or flat, and what kind of glass would have been employed, crown, flint, and so on.

I've heard something similar for using a coffee cup. I would suppose it would only be good for touching up a kitchen knife, but I don't have any more information

My concern about it is that the curvature of the bottle or cup would result in only a single point on the edge making contact at any given time. This means that all of the weight of the blade is concentrated at that single point. So, if anyone wants to give this a try, be sure to use a very light touch.

A lot of DE razor hones were made of glass,, so I guess glass in some forms could be used for straights & DE razors.

I suppose if you drank the contents inside the bottle first , using it a strop might cross your mind :<0)

Like Hirlau said Glass could be used but it would have to be a flat bottle like a pint.

My guess is that using a curved glass bottle form would be akin to steeling. Maybe some distilled liquor flask would have served like a paddle? But if flatness was the goal, some sort of plate glass cut to a custom format would seem to be preferable.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

A lot of DE razor hones were made of glass,, so I guess glass in some forms could be used for straights & DE razors.

You could strop the old style of DE inside of a glass.....

My grandfather used to resharpen his DE blades inside a small, smooth sided waterglass with a bit of water in it, by swishing it back and fourth. He said it made them last longer.

I think your grandpa had bottle in mind and had plenty of them around :<0)

Maybe you could finish or touch up a straight on a jalousie window strip of glass.