Thread: Honing your own Razors, is it worth the investment....and risk?

I've wondered if it's truly worth investing in the equipment, when I only need to have them honed once a year let's say. And when I read about all the "excitement" of people trying to learn I'm wondering if it's truly worth the risk.

As always I appreciate your feedback.

I often compare Honing with an Oil Change from both sides of the equation.

As a Professional I look at it the same way a dealer ship looks at Oil Changes, no real profit, just a way to keep a customer ..

On a personal level it really is about the same too, I know how to do my own oils changes, I have the tools, but I can get it done for about the same price as I can do it myself, that is a no brainer..

Now on the Tractor there is a HUGE savings by doing it all myself so I learned how and I spend about $250 and a couple of hours rather than $500+ and a few days of waiting for the shop to get it done..

Only you can decide about the value of it,, I can tell you this much, there is a sense of accomplishment in learning how it also adds a new aspect to the hobby that is SR shaving,, But if you are a "Shaver" and not a "Hobbyist" then get it honed and enjoy your shaves

First figure the cost of the hones. I only have 2(a 6,000water stone and a 12,000 oil stone) Not a big investment and I have honed hundreds of razors. Some have large sums of money in hones. It takes a lot of razors to hone to cover the cost.

My personal razors get honed and then touched once or twice a year. If I did not hone for others and razors that I restored and sell I would not bother. It is fun and feels good when you accomplish a great edge but it is work. I only charge $18 for a razor hone plus shipping. Takes a lot of razors to pay for some hones.

But this is just my opinion.

If your razors are already honed and shaving well, you can stretch that out quite a bit with either a carefully used pasted strop, or just a finish hone. With the latter, you will never need any other hone provided you do your touch up honing before the edge degrades beyond the ability of the finisher to handle it. On those rare occasions when a finisher won't do the job, you can decide if you want to invest in more hones, or send it out for a full honing.

Originally Posted by Augustagj

I've wondered if it's truly worth investing in the equipment, when I only need to have them honed once a year let's say. And when I read about all the "excitement" of people trying to learn I'm wondering if it's truly worth the risk.

As always I appreciate your feedback.

If you have the time to invest, it's worth it to learn a new skill.
Finding, restoring and shaving with old razors is also a very interesting hobby.
Caution: The learning curve is endless.

What sort of Tractor?

Learning a new skill was one of the key reasons I was so interested in learning to shave with a straight razor. So I get that for sure.

So, it depends. If you just want to shave, send them out.

Or, get a 12k, or a 20k and learn to produce a very shaveable edge. But I am always, amazed by the edges that people shave with, by the condition of their razors when I get them.

There is so much more an edge can give, depending on the razor, the stone and your face and beard. If you hone your own, you can tweak a razor to a truly custom edge, that you will enjoy with each shave, a whole other level of shaving.

It can take time to learn and cost a bit, but I heard a guy make a valid comparison of cartridge razors. That at the current cost, one can easily spend over 300 dollars a year, $3,000 over ten years.

For three grand, you can buy some very nice stones...

When you look at it that way the cost of a handful of very nice stones is not that much, add a custom edge that you will look forward to shaving with… it’s a bargain.

If you are a shaver with a couple of razors that require honing once a year then it almost certainly is not worth the monetary investment in hones to do it yourself. That is not taking into account the long and frustrating learning curve once you have your hones bought to get to the point of consistently good results.

OTH you are a hobbyist shaver that enjoys buying vintage razors to restore and use the monetary equation changes quite a bit. Add to that the enjoyment of learning a new skill and you have good reasons for learning to hone.

It depends on your mind set and what you want to do.

Bob

Learning at a meet or with another member is the fastest and easiest way to learn. If you use tape the likelihood of stuffing a razor goes way way down. Everyone does not need to hone. There is a well known member here that has shaved for years, sends all of his major honing out, owns one high grit hone and does touch ups. I am sure that he probably could learn to hone easily enough, if he chose to go that route. There are as many approaches to honing as there are members.