Thread: What if it were 1860?

Sometimes we view things through our modern eyes and have real difficulty viewing things or relating to things through the eyes of someone who lived 150 years ago or more. We are the product of our culture.

Back in those days guys owned one hone and used it to the best of their abilities and if the razors pulled a little well, that's how it was. Many more people were competent at honing than now. There were shops and barbers and itinerant peddlers and others who traveled around and honed for you. Yes there were many types of stones available but except for people in specialized trades who went to the trouble of obtaining specialized stones most used local produced inexpensive types.

Also just because you may own 50 different types of hones doesn't mean your edges are any better than someone who ownes one or two.

Also since the original question was "what if it was 1860" well, most of us wouldn't have to worry because a majority of us would be dead. Probably having died of childhood disease or accidents or some medical condition that could not be treated then which we take for granted now.

There is a long history of using "pastes" too, just not necessairly what you would think of based on the modern pastes. Some examples are crushed bone and ash.

I'm assuming and hoping that I'd still be alive and kicking. I'm asking this because I was thinking last hight how much work I put into getting a good edge on my blades. If I'm restoring a Ebay special, this can take over a week. Honing itself is over an hour long before I'm ready just to test it on my face. I don't think people would have had that kind of time 150 years ago. There must be something they did that was probably simpler, but worked.

I havent' read that treatise posted earlier yet. I'm looking forward to that.

Goog

Well back then you'd buy your blades new. And you'd take better care of them than the average ebay-er. Or you'd have one of the many many professionals hone her for you.

I recently sharpened up a razor that belonged to a local doctor, The razor was his grand fathers who died when the doc was 2.
The doc's mom said she used to sit and watch her father shave all the time with this straight. It was all he ever used.

After cleaning it up and polishing it all up like new.
I looked it over and decided that it had never seen a stone no hone wear on the spine at all. Also no country of manufacture. So must have been made prior to when they had to put country of origin on products.
It took quite a while to get everything set and shave ready where it would pass HHT test. Did a test shave, it did pretty good.
When I gave it back to the doc I told him his grand father would have been tickled to death to have have that kind of edge to shave with.
That razor had to shave terrible all he ever did was strop the devil out of it before he shaved.
That kind of shave was normal for him. He probably did not know any better.

I agree with the fact that we have better edges on our blades overall than they did back then.
Barbers had a line of people waiting for shaves every morning.

We are truely blessed to have the internet at our finger tips so that we may pull up all the info we need in a matter of clicks.

I tried straight razors 38 years ago! There was no info on hand for me to learn from. After turning my face into a rash I put it down until one day I found SRP and said maybe I should give it another try.

Thanks everyone.

Silver2

Originally Posted by greatgoogamooga

How would you hone your razor?

If it were 1860 I wouldn't be born yet. But ignoring that, I'd grow a beard and not own a razor. But if I was forced to shave I'd probably be stuck with a big chunk of metal. And I'd buy it new. If I was forced to hone it, I'd call up Lynn (who would also be in 1860) and see if he'd let me borrow his Shaptons. I could maintain an edge with an old hone from back in the day, but I would not want to try to hone a dull wedge with one

Originally Posted by greatgoogamooga

I don't think people would have had that kind of time 150 years ago.

Working hours were often long, especially for the very poor, but think, no television, no radio, not many books.
Both my grandfathers were clean shaven except for the obligatory Victorian/Edwardian style moustache and both were shaving before Mr Gillette had his safety razor on the market.

All that has been mentioned so far is use of finishing hones and strops. What did they use to bevel set before using these, or is it assumed they used coticules with slurry? They couldnt have imported Aotos or other low grit naturals, so what did they use?

And how were razors ground prior to having electricity?

more beards

At least from what i was told when i was a kid was that hobos or so called 'men-from-under-the-boat' or 'forest brothers' as we call them here could shave even with a piece of broken glass.