Thread: Have you worn down a razor?

No. The only visible hone wear I have on any razor is the one I tried to learn to hone on and purposely applied uneven pressure. No other razors I have used even show hone wear.

I believe a lot of the cupping we see in barbers hones was created on purpose during the transition to safety razors. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with straights at all.

Nope, not even on the numerous restores I honed. I have been known to tape on rare occasions to speed up honing like on wedges. No tape for me unless I would be honing a good portion of the side of the razor. I hate taping!

I wasn't really interested in anything about how so much wear gets on some old razors - I'm quite sure that is due to "different" honing techinques and non-flat hones.

I was more curious because, in discussions about taping, there have been lots of posts where people have said things like "as the blade is honed more, the change in the angle will become more dramatic" - but if no one (aside from those so far) has ever actually worn down a razor from normal use, that argument about taping seems, to me, invalid.

It seems to me that, for taping, the only real change in the bevel angle is the initial change the taping causes - after that, assuming only normal honing is needed (nothing else should be needed, right?), if the razor is not worn down (and this poll suggests it won't be), there will be little to no change in the blade width and therefore little to no change in the bevel angle.

I had hinted in a previous thread about taping that I would post a poll like this, Jimmy (I think it was Jimmy) said I should, so here it is.

EDIT: Here is a link to the post where Jimmy quoted my post http://straightrazorpalace.com/485569-post13.html

Also, for those of you who have worn down a razor, how long did it take, and what is "normal honing" for you?

Here is a razor that I've had since the mid '80s. It was bought by a barber in Madison, NJ in the 1920s. He was 99 years old and was the oldest barber still working in the USA and probably the world when I went to his shop and bought this for $20.00. It was part of his rotation and he honed on a coticule. I have honed it once with tape and recently without tape. Great shave BTW. I have no idea how many times he would have honed this razor but it must have been many over the decades that he used it. His name was Alex Micah and he was written up in newspapers up that way at the time. He passed away at 100 or 101 years old IIRC. Another BTW, he told me that it was no good to live too long but that is for another thread.