Originally Posted by
Euclid440
In some ways I have kind of wondered about the process myself.
I wondered why there are so many old blades, pre 1900 still out there that obviously were well used, but with so little spine wear. Clearly they were not taping spines.
I believe we have become obsessed with honing, recently and old time maintenance was more about polishing with high grit stones, pastes and stropping as part of a regular maintenance program. Almost burnishing and as Royalcake says with a “very light touch”. Most probably bevels were not reset except to correct damage.
We now, in a press for time choose to reset a bevel than spend the time to gently bring an edge back to life or to maintain it.
Time and the ability to re-establish a shaving edge quickly is the reason we first turn to re-setting the bevel.
Before time was not an issue and many thing were done by hand with skill and took… as long as they took.