Thread: Honing cost inflation.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I guarantee you'll never get rich honing razors. I'd take the gas pipe if I had to do it all day every day.

That's my word of the day now!
Don't forget if you are sending razors to be honed you have shipping costs too! I am still working on honing wedges, but plan on getting the hang of it soon so I don't have razors flying across the country anymore.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I don't know where your looking but I don't pay no where near that and the best guy out of here is who I send it to, as a matter of a fact I don't hone at all and in almost 3 years I still haven't paid as much as a starter set of hones to keep mine at the top level of shaving , so I wonder why anyone would want to invest in hones seeing how your doing something wrong if you need to go to the stones much, my stropping keeps my blades sharp for months or even years. But 15-20 is the going rate and as I said I only use the best! Tc

I guess it depends on how many razors you have. When you have a good number of razors in your rotation it does not take too long to pay for a complete set of Naniwas, 1K, 3K, 8K, 12K, and a DMT325 even if you only hone them once. I mean if you have 30 razors @ $20 a pop plus shipping both ways it makes sense to do your own.

Bob

I love honing but not enough to make it my bread and butter. I think that there are a lot of options and just don't go with the any service you feel is overpriced.
I do know a guy that does it as part of his bread and butter and he has an insane level of enthusiasm for honing and teaching to hone. The guy is a machine, and a pretty nice guy too.

Honing can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it. Say you have a collection of 10 razors lets say 1 honing each easily 200 bucks right. I can think of a bunch of stones that can work into that budget and you can have pretty much all the hones you'll ever need. I stress the word "Need" not want which is a whole different affliction. I certainly don't want to turn off folks to professional honing if you have a couple razors that you send out every 6 months or so fine. But once you enter razor enthusiast, collector and e bay hoarder territory than it starts to make way too much sense not to deal with your own stock. Besides it makes all this shaving jazz a little more fun.

I like to hone. It's enjoyable for me to start with a butter knife and make it shave. I don't do it for the public. I like hunting down old razors and cleaning them up and maybe re-scaleing them then honeing and shaving with them once or twice. then maybe putting them out there for sale then take that money and doing it all over again. I'm not anywhere as good as one of my friends but the enjoyment alone has paid for my small collection of hones. To those who send there blades out for a bit of pampering that's ok but for folks like me well ya'll know the feeling of a razor with that special edge.

Having honed my own razors it is a joy.
And a work of love.
Ok once in a while a PITA.
Have you ever honed a razor for someone else??
I was nervous and worried. Didnt want to scratch it anywhere.
Double,triple wrap it and add tracking.
Wait to hear from customer if they are happy or not.
Worry and concerned that customer is not satisfied.
Aint worth my nerves.
But thats just me. I would always hone a fellow members troublesome razor if they asked. For Free
But once you start charging it a completely different animal.

Originally Posted by ultrasoundguy2003

Having honed my own razors it is a joy.
And a work of love.
Ok once in a while a PITA.
Have you ever honed a razor for someone else??
I was nervous and worried. Didnt want to scratch it anywhere.
Double,triple wrap it and add tracking.
Wait to hear from customer if they are happy or not.
Worry and concerned that customer is not satisfied.
Aint worth my nerves.
But thats just me. I would always hone a fellow members troublesome razor if they asked. For Free
But once you start charging it a completely different animal.

Where are you in my times of need?

Yes, the quickest way to turn something you like doing into drudgery is to do it as a job for money. At least it is for me.

Bob

Not just Hones, Everything costs more, that is the way of things now, sure there are super greedy people out there selling hones inflated to the maximum, thank Gawwd not that many.

As much as I like natural hones for their beauty, the synthetics are Fast, reliable, and repeatable, don't forget easy to acquire.

What it comes down to is what a guy can afford or will pay for things. My uncle used to say in the car business, "There's a seat for every ass and an ass for every seat"

,,,,Shave ready Gold Dollar?!?

A decent razor or two ($100-125) pro-honed and then re-honed pro is what MOST folks need to learn that it's not the razor that's the problem, it's (pick one): stropping, prep, lather, angle, pressure, stretching, confidence, etc, etc.

That and some support from SRP carries a new shaver further (I contend) than a succession of allegedly shave ready Gold Dollars.