Thread: Hone of the Day

Originally Posted by Euclid440

“I'm positive the knowledgeable capable shavers of old had just as good an edge as we do today, maybe better.

I know my great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather's Coticules were tweaked for maximum performance, alas I was never able to ask for what exactly how they used it. Both Coticule and BBW side were heavily used and very darkened, heavily used with oil maybe? But the edge it gives is the smoothest edge off a Coticule I've ever experienced and I can't replicate it with any of my stones.

I know they shaved daily and never missed a single day. They must've been doing something right.”

So, after WWII and the advent of the Double Edge and the marketing of disposable razor blades, there was a massive switch to the disposable razors. The whole double edge marketing was designed to sell more blades. A “twist to open”, made it easier to change blades and use/buy more of them. The razor was the ploy to sell more blades, The Kurig coffee maker/Poloroid Camera of its day.

They would pee themselves if they knew what folks today are willing to pay for disposable blades.

Lost was a lot the knowledge that was passed down from father to son, in maintaining a razor edge. Just look at stones, Coticules and slates, there is so much information lost and some, very little hung on by a thread, with guys like Ardennes and a handful of old guys that did pass on what they knew and hunted down more lost information, before it was lost forever.

Look at the Damasks Steel story, and how quickly and easily that information was lost, except for guys like Penderay, Dauksch, Verhoeven and a handful of guys in home forges, around the world, independently. Tinkering, trying to reverse engineer true Damasks steel, making thousands of melts, to put lightening in a bottle, do we have a glimmer of how it was done. But even now, we are not absolutely sure, exactly or why some of it was done.

So, yea we may understand a lot, maybe more of what is going on between the steel and stone, and may have some faster and finer cutting stones, but has some of the magic technique been lost?

It is a fragile thing, knowledge, and can easily be lost in a generation or less. I heard of a college professor who gives his American born, college students the US citizenship exam, on the first day of each semester. No-one yet, has passed. It is not a difficult test.

We, some ways we are like, Pendray, Dauksch and Verhoeven. Honing, stumbling in the dark, but for us, it is so much easier to exchange information. The meeting between Penderay and Verhoeven was a chance encounter of someone who knew someone and put the two together.

There is a lot we know, but some we don’t, and probably much that, we don’t know, what we don’t know. The extra 2 percent.

Interesting stuff. We can learn from others however not everything has already happened. I believe we should not just copy and accept but create and think for ourselves. Developing our own thoughts instead of just taking on other peoples thoughts. Whether it is honing processes or understanding our reason for being here.
Asking questions and figuring out answers is time well spent and goes hand in hand with Natural stones

Always more than one way to skin a cat, but as for the steels made back in the day, I've been fortunate enough to try a variety of them ranging from late 1700s to modern tungsten steel. Also was a Wootz, by Bruno, and a Charlie Lewis that I believe was Damascus.

There's definitely something different about the earlier makers, compared to today's. To be honest, my best shaves have come from the cast steels of the late 1700s to early 1800s. I say it comes down to the ore that was used, and the smelting process used to achieve the acquired steel. Even to the point of what fuel was used to fire the furnace, heat treating, and what solution was used to quench the steel.

Originally Posted by outback

There's definitely something different about the earlier makers, compared to today's. To be honest, my best shaves have come from the cast steels of the late 1700s to early 1800s. I say it comes down to the ore that was used, and the smelting process used to achieve the acquired steel. Even to the point of what fuel was used to fire the furnace, heat treating, and what solution was used to quench the steel.

Agree Outback, I’ve noted this too. I have several French framebacks and ‘acier fondue’ (pot steel) made before the Bessemer process and they’re every bit as good if not better than the best modern steels as far as taking and holding a razor edge. They remind me very much of TI C135 ‘carbon song’ or the best semi-modern Swedish steel (and they may be old Swedish, many were stamped Swedish steel) lol. The only thing that the ancients lacked was an advertising department.