One indicator of how rare a true honemeister can be: On any day there are at least 1,000 straight razors for sale on eBay. There are almost never more than 50 of them advertised "shave ready," and usually around 35. There are just six people who regularly sell them advertised as shave-ready. Only three of them have meet the highest standards of customer satisfaction.

So there are thousands of people who sell razors from time to time. But only a comparative handful with the confidence to constantly buy, restore and resell razors in shave-ready condition.

Considerably more of those people are here in SRP than on eBay.