Thread: Honemeister Accreditation?

Originally Posted by Bruce

You'll know of your elevated status when people come to you to ask for advice on how they can make their razors shave better, or "hey, could you try to touch this up for me?"

Once that path to your door becomes well trodden, you will be a honer. Once the path treaders come with a jingle in their jeans, you will then be a honemeister.

good honing,

wow that was deep.

I am a total newb and i can say this is true. I have never seen Mr. Glens work but i know he's good. why else would everyone go to him for advice? why would everyone else recommend him if he was not good?

with that being said if you were a new guy on the honing block i would not likely send my razors to you until i heard people speaking praises of what you have done. Maybe you could hone a few peoples razors for free? I have no interest in honing but i am trying to get into restorations, i plan to send the top guys here a razor i have done to bash or critique.

I have had a number of them honed by Lynn Abrams, one from Tim Zowada and two from The Topher. These are benchmarks for me to shoot for in my own honing. When I found that I could get some razors as sharp I figured I was getting to the point where I could hone a razor.

There are a lot of variables in razors and in hones. Only going through many , many of them will give you the experience you need. My RAD and HAD have given me the exposure. I suspect I am good enough to hone razors for other people for $$ but I have a job and I do this as a hobby. If I were to start charging people I would have deadlines and expectations. I would rather keep this as what Lynn calls it, a "sport" and not turn it into another job. YMMV

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Only going through many , many of them will give you the experience you need. My RAD and HAD have given me the exposure. I suspect I am good enough to hone razors for other people for $$ but I have a job and I do this as a hobby. If I were to start charging people I would have deadlines and expectations. I would rather keep this as what Lynn calls it, a "sport" and not turn it into another job. YMMV

These sound like the words of a wise man.

Al raz.

Good points everyone.

Think I'll hone a couple for free and see how that goes. That will give me a chance to determine if I like working for others and get some feedback as well.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I suspect I am good enough to hone razors for other people for $$ but I have a job and I do this as a hobby. If I were to start charging people I would have deadlines and expectations. I would rather keep this as what Lynn calls it, a "sport" and not turn it into another job. YMMV

I get around this by specifying up front that 'when it's done' really means what it says. I don't work to deadlines. Otoh I charge a very modest price for outstanding work (if I say so myself)
I mostly do restorations though. I agree that honing jobs should have a reasonable turnover time. For restorations it doesn't matter usually, as long as the owner agrees up front.

And I always wait with asking for payment until the work is completely done. That way the owner doesn't feel bad. I don't feel it is fair to get paid before there are results.

So for me this is still a hobby. The only difference is that people pay me to do it. Though I must say: my long turnover times, combined with the fact that I sometimes need to buy equipment or consumables to do something means that at the end I haven't really made that much.
But this is the way I like to do things, and the most important thing for me is that it stays fun and interesting.

Buy yourself an Eboy special with no bevel and dreadful hone wear on the spine and hone that. When you do this for a business you never know what you will get and some guy will have you hone his razor and then complain the bevel is 5 microns bigger on one side than the other. If you can handle all of that then your ready.

There are all kinds of pitfalls when you start honing for others.
What you will receive are the razors that others cannot get sharp because of either a warped blade, badly nicked edge, uneven wear on the spine, a definite frown shape to the razors edge (that really gets me), pitting along the edge, very loose pins, or a "bread knife dull edge", to name a few.
You better have a full complement of tools and the experience to know how and when to use them. In short, you will not be receiving the cream of the crop. Only someone else's problems. A challenge is fun but it does grow old. Then you start making your own razors!
Make sure that you reserve the right to return the razor because it is in such bad shape.
P.S. Sometimes you will receive a cracked blade.

Off to the workshop I go,

Two years ago a fairly new member asked this very question. He got a mixed response; some said go for it and others said hold on there grasshopper who you think you are.

In the end he decided to buy up ebay beaters for $5 and hone them up and sell them for $15 or $20. That way he wasn't "presuming" to be a honemeister, he was just selling very nice no-name shavers for an excellent price. People got to know his edges, and word got around.

That was JoshEarl. You mighta heard of him.

Go for it grasshopper!

Now and then I sell razors I've honed on the classifieds. I started off by saying that I had honed the blades, and they were, for me, shave ready (shave ready is, after all, subjective). As time went by, I found that I had not received any complaints from the buyers, with one exception. Once, I was told that one out of two blades that went to a buyer was not ready. He sent it to me, I re-honed and re-tested the blade, and I sent it back. He was happy.

Having gotten better at honing, and comparing the blades to those I have recieved, I don't feel that is is necessary to make these disclaimers anymore. But, if I did recieve feedback that a blade was not ready, I would still be more than willing to work out something with the buyer such that everyone ended up happy.