Thread: did they hone their own?

Do you think the average guy of yesteryear had a barber's hone and aintained his own razor or did he just use pasted strops and take it to the barber for honing when it needed it? I am wondering since "barber's hones" would seem to imply that barbers were the ones to have the hones, unless thats just marketing BS like the modern day phrase "professional quality".

There are a lot of barbers hones for sale on Ebay. Judging from that, I would guess that many non-barbers used them.

Anecdotally, when I started using straight razors a Swaty was waiting for me in my wife's kitchen drawer. It was just one of the whetstones that was in the kitchen for sharpening knives and utensils. Thinking out loud... when straights went out of vogue, they disappeared in drawers. But, possibly a lot of barbers hones continued to be used in various non-razor-related ways. So, maybe the usage of hones during "the day" was even more than the incidence of hones now indicates.

If you look at the "old barbershop" signs on eBay, you often see a price for "razor honing" along with the other prices listed for "haircut" and "shampoo." That makes me think that while many people probably used strops and maybe even barber's hones at home, the real work of honing a razor from dull to shave-ready sharpness was probably done by the experts at the time, namely barbers.

I suspect the poorly honed razors we so commonly see also give us a hint of the use of barbers hones. When we see a razor with the tip about 1/4 inch narrower than the heel, or a vicious frown, or any of the other gross honing exaggerations, that has to be from a hone. I doubt you could do that with a strop, even if you wanted to.

And, I doubt any barber would hone razors like that. Doesn't that smack of a do-it-at-homer with his barbers hone?

I would imagine it was mixed, just like today. Of course, unless we have access to data, we can only speculate. I guess speculating is fun...

My grandfather used straights but i don't remember i ever saw him honing his razors, but it is obvious that he should have done it somehow. I saw him stropping with the old belt before shaving.

Originally Posted by JeffE

If you look at the "old barbershop" signs on eBay, you often see a price for "razor honing" along with the other prices listed for "haircut" and "shampoo." That makes me think that while many people probably used strops and maybe even barber's hones at home, the real work of honing a razor from dull to shave-ready sharpness was probably done by the experts at the time, namely barbers.

This probably very close. There have always been shops where people in the old days could take their shears, scissors, etc, to be sharpened and in many cases razors were taken to these shops as well to be put on stones or grinders or belts based on how the sharpener did his work. There were also folks who went around to the shops on carts doing much the same thing. Many barbers from what I have heard sent their razors out too. The barber hones were used mainly for refreshing by the everyday shaver. If you look at the instructions when you can find them on boxes that held the barber hones, you will note that most indicate between 4-6 strokes to refresh the razor.

Have fun,

Lynn

This topic comes up alot.

You have to remember in the old days when most used a straight getting service was not like it is now. Not only could you go to a barber but you had these itinerant peddler types who always came around and they could do it and there were typical hardware stores and cutlery stores and in those days those guys knew what they were doing. Also shaving supply shops could do it also. Actually there were all kinds of places to go to to get your razors well honed.

I know my Grandfather used a straight and he had an old hone. Hones were cheap and easy to come by in those days it was just a matter of how well the average guy could use one. Most in the old days weren't like us here. As long as they got a decent relatively comfortable shave they were satisfied.

As far as pasted strops go I think that's a relatively new concept but I could be wrong.

My stepfather told me he remembers his Grandfather (whose razor I have now ) honing his razor. But it was nothing like the process I go through. He said it was quick just a few passes and he was done. So I would guess that he had a barbers hone and just touched up his razors. When my stepfather watched me hone a razor it was dull and I went through the whole process of honing. Oh and the razor I got from him had very little hone ware.

My father tells me that my grandfather used a "barber hone" regularly, and he remembered it as being brown, shiny, and dished in the middle. My Dad wasn't sure what his Dad was actually using until I showed him my Swaty, then it clicked.

But my grandfather was a sharecropper in south Georgia during the Depression, so did pretty much everything himself out of necessity, as many others had to at the time. He used to butcher hogs with a knife he made himself out of an old saw blade, so I'm guessing honing his own razor wasn't much of a stretch for him.