Thread: prices

What do you feel are suitable prices for hones - bevel setters, refiners, and finishers? I've been searching trying to think of what to get in the 8K+ level, and noticed how the Kitayama was called an expensive stone at 70-90 bucks a couple years ago, back when cotis could be had for less. Now with Japanese natural finishers, the price increase on Coticules, 10K Chosera, 16/30K Glasstones, D8EE, 4x2 Frictionite barber hones going for 70 on the bay since redtrader went away, etc., 80 bucks doesn't seem like anything special. The Ch12K is still cheap, but is the price to play getting out of hand?

The prices are whatever the vendors have. And the suitability would vary from one person to the other.... I don't think everybody who shaves with a straight razor needs to have hones.

Yes, I find it interesting how the high end of stones discussed is creeping up with new products released/found, while as you say, not everyone needs them.

If that old fellow that has the quarry in Scotland where the Tams and WOA come out of saw that combo stone on ebay go for $355.00 the other day I bet he would be cranking up production.

Not to mention, the inflation of the US dollar, and the worldwide economic situation that I'm sure had SOME impact on prices.

true, the weak dollar is pushing prices up stateside for imported hones, but I could handle the crappy exchange rate if I had ordered myself a Coticule or Chosera 10K ~18 months ago when I could have had them for 50-100% less than today

There seems to be several folks that can keep an edge going for months with canvas and leather hanging strops and even longer with occasional use of pasted strops. Maybe that should be encouraged more. Otherwise potential newbies are going to be spooked away from straights because of the price of the hones. It seems the forums have a bias towards honing versus stropping for long term maitenance that may not be justified at todays prices.

Reference:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...xperiment.html

I think it really depends on a few factors. For one, as has been said earlier, not everyone that shaves needs a hone. And even if one has a hone or even a set of hones, there is always a very wide range to select from.

As always - the very best tends to come with a notable price tag attached to it. Is it really going to produce a superior hone to other stones? - not sure about that. It really depends on what metal the blade is made of, and who is doing the honing - just as much (if not more) then the hone.

Different stones work fit various metals (or not). Honing a stainless is not the same as honing Tamahagane.

There are synthetic hones - and even though they tend to be very uniform - they still vary from one maker to another and even within groups of the same product there is variance at times.

Natural stones are ALWAYS a gamble, unless you can be 100% sure - i.e. use the stone and see if it indeed what you are looking for. Which is in most cases not possible. It's a trust issue between you and the person selling it.

The bottom line?

Hones are a disease for both professional sharpeners, and for the home user. The price is a function of how much the market will bare. It's comparable to surfers sitting around in the ocean on their boards and waiting for "that perfect set" or "The ultimate wave". Will it come? When will it come? and at what price? - well...who is to say really?

To try to focus on the question posed by the OP, I'm not sure that I would say prices are getting out of hand, but I can see why they are going up. Straights are making a comeback, hones are getting talked up a lot (here and I would assume elsewhere too), some of the hones are also quite rare. It seems that the same trends that apply to razors is applying to hones. So, in the same way one could say "Man, I could have gotten razor X for half what it is today," one could say "Man, I could have gotten hone Y for half what it is today."

For new production hones, there is also the question of what it cost the company or companies to develop, produce, and market the hones. This means that the high end, current production hones are expensive. But, the same is true with razors.

You can get a great vintage, no-name (I mean non-DD/Puma/Filly/whatever) razor and a great vintage no-name (not a Swaty/Frictionite/whatever) hone for about $10-$20 a piece, have the blade honed once, and maintain it for life (with maybe a honing or two if you damage the edge), and pasted strops are another cheap option too. But here on the forum, most members (or maybe just the members who tend to post more) like to have numerous razors/hones that are out of the ordinary.

So yes, I do think there are collectors on ebay who drive prices up waay too much, and I might even call it out of hand. Newer, high end hones, though they may be out of my price range, still may have very reasonable prices (based on the development and production costs).

Just remember that you should have no trouble getting a great edge on a razor with very basic and reasonably priced hones. We see guys talking up all the exotics and high end stuff and some may think you need it but in reality you don't. For most who have a few razors there is no need to start a hone collection. If you really start acquiring a lot of razors then you have already invested a good sum of momey in them so the additional acquisition of more hones just goes along with it. True there are some razors that seem to go best with certain hones but that doesn't mean you can't hone them to perfection with the tried and true methods and hardware.

Also, remember that many of these natural stones really last forever so on a per year basis once you shell out the money for them its not as bad as it seems.

Additionally its true that you see hones talked about more than other methods but I think that's because the use of hones are the classic way to do the job. But like anything else you find what works best for you and your razors.