One potential benefit of honing prices getting up there is that it might actually make people do some homework about who they send their razors to for honing.

What does a mechanic charge per hour? An electrician? Plumber? We may not fully appreciate it since we are always talking about it on the forum but razor honing is a niche and rare skill in the grand scheme.

In any event, for openness and transparency here's how I work out my rate when I hone. I base it off an economic concept known as opportunity cost: the maximum loss incurred by choosing an alternative action. In my case, by honing a razor I could be giving up a half hour consulting to, say, the Government. My current hourly consulting rate to Government is around $500 before tax.

Some razors only take 20 minutes to hone, some take a half hour, some you come back to. So on average a straightforward razor might take say 30 minutes. That's why I charge $250 a razor to hone them. I don't want to lose customers, so I absorb the capital outlay costs of the hardware like stones, water rates, electricity and so on.



James.