Thread: Did barber hones ever work?!

Those who who have been reading my threads know that, until a couple days ago, I was honing exclusively with barber hones. I started with Tilly's 3-hone beginner set, then added a couple Swatys just because I've always been curious about them. I have a nice wide range of grits, from shockingly coarse (~1K) to fairly fine (~8K).

I recently bought a Chinese 12K and holy moly, what a difference it makes!

Of all the barber hones I have, only one (the Lithide hone) could be called a finishing hone. The rest of them are all too coarse to shave with by themselves. Even the two Swatys, reputed to be the finest hones money can buy, are shockingly coarse & aggressive. You can shave off them, and even do a good job, but it is not a comfortable shave.

It's my understanding that barbers used to keep a barber hone in their pockets to touch up their razors. But as far as I can tell, only the Lithide is capable of serving in that capacity, and even it is not all that great.

So how did the barbers of old get decent edges on their razors?! Or maybe they didn't. Is it possible that our forbears simply tolerated uncomfortable shaves & thought that was normal? Or did barbers have a few pasted strops in finer grits than their barber hones?

The cushioned strop hone, in particular, was meant to be glued to a leather pad, serving as a pocket-size hone + strop all-in-one. Which suggests that people were meant to shave right off the C.S. hone. However, the C.S. hone is so coarse & so aggressive, it's almost a bevel-setter, certainly not a finishing hone! (I've shaved off it before, while traveling, and it is not a pleasant experience).

Anyone have any insights?!

For the record, my hones, in order of coarse to fine:

3-Line Swaty (~1K)
cushioned strop hone
2-line Swaty
Gem
Lithide (~8K)

The C.S. hone and the 2-line Swaty are close enough to be interchangeable.