Thread: Honing cost inflation.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

Maybe pure speculation but I doubt many in this biz rely on it as a single source of income. I tend to see it as something that fills spare time. But feel free to tell me I am wrong.

That's what I was thinking too. I don't see a 2 car garage with a white picket fence off razor honing salary.

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

That's what I was thinking too. I don't see a 2 car garage with a white picket fence off razor honing salary.

Nope, tons of people do their own honing now.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

Maybe pure speculation but I doubt many in this biz rely on it as a single source of income. I tend to see it as something that fills spare time. But feel free to tell me I am wrong.

Absolutely. But even free time is valuable. You have a limited supply of it, and unless it's an activity you value in and of itself, it's a matter of how much you value your time. that is why I generally don't try to make a business out of kitchen knives. Market prices dictate that for general kitchen knives, no one is paying close to what I count for shop time. they easily take as much time as a razor to make. More actually, if I do a good hand polished finish. And I just have a lot more fun making razors. I do make kitchen knives occasionally, but mostly as gifts for friends and family. In those cases I have some fun making them, and I make them to make other people happy.

That is one of the benefits of doing this as a hobby. You can focus on the things you like to make / have most fun with.
Case in point, my best friend likes handforged kitchen knives but not the prices they go for. But he and I forged 2 blanks for him, and I finished them and gave them as a present. In a couple of weeks, he is going to help as a striker for forging a 9 layer billet for his next knife. Hours of work, but in fun and friendship.

Otoh if someone asks me to make that same knife, that's going to be a very expensive knife because then I count shop time.

Which explains a lot. Namely why the price of honing isnt going up.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

Which explains a lot. Namely why the price of honing isnt going up.

Maybe yours isn't, and if you hone razors for fun, then you got a good thing going.
Otoh over the years the price of honing in general has gone up, and comes in tiers. Back in 2006 when I joined, Lynn charged 20$ iirc, and others something between 10 and 15$.
These days you see many at 25$, with additional costs if the bevel needs to be set from scratch, or if the razor is a heavy wedge.

Well 2006 is about 10 years ago right? I dont see a five buck increase in ten years all that much tbh. But I look at the classifieds and still see the very Earl Sheib price of $ 9.99. So I dunno.

Originally Posted by Bruno

doing a mindnumbingly boring job for less than minimum wage.

That is my take. Not that I don't sometimes even enjoy honing a specific razor ........ if I'm at that time 'into it', but more often than not I'd rather be doing something else.

When I was learning to hone, and collecting stones enthusiastically, it was a different story. I was challenged to defeat these chunks of steel and stone. Once I finally became proficient, after many hours of doing the x strokes, back and forth, circles, honing lost the allure.

I remember early on an experienced member referring to "the drudgery of honing" and I couldn't imagine what he was talking about. A year or two later I knew.

I couldn't agree more. Any honing I do for myself has to be accompanied by the right mood. I can enjoy one or two razors maybe. I used to be different and like jimmy said it was more about a challenging piece of steel. Havent bought any new razors or eBay disasters lately. So not much to challenge me atm. And my meager collection of razors are shaving well. I used to wreck them and start over. But now I leave them be.

So, what's the point of this thread?

items that are technology driven usually become cheaper over time and things that are labor intensive become more expensive and if manufacturers collude those items become really expensive. There is no formula to calculate price increases based on time and inflation that will be accurate for all items. You can complain about $4 a gallon gas (in the U.S-har har), or 40 grand for a new car and if you want you just don't buy it.

It's Like the folks who complain about a price on Eboy. The seller can set whatever price he wants. The market dictates the selling price and if Jimmy decides to hone for fun and profit and charges $100 to hone a simple razor and $500 to do a complicated job that's his right and folks will decide whether to patronize him or not.

It's like that old saying, everyone complains about the weather but no one can do anything about it.

I like when people complain that 'all the places that used to have reasonable prices went out of business'.