Thread: What if it were 1860?

Originally Posted by Scipio

And how were razors ground prior to having electricity?

Don't know the particulars of old-fashioned metal work, but maybe steam-powered machines. Most of what we consider to be the Industrial Revolution took place well before the factories relied on electricity. Even before that, there were water-powered machines that could do all kinds of things.

Don't quote me on this, but it also seems like someone, somewhere once posted a picture having to do with razor manufacture, and it was a room full of women who were using machines that ran on some kind of manual power, like foot pumps or something. As you can tell, I'm a bit hazy on the particulars.

Originally Posted by Scipio

And how were razors ground prior to having electricity?

Water, human and animal power up to 1778 when James Watt invented the Steam Engine. Cotton mills, machine shops and the like were driven by a system of steam engine powered belts and pulleys.

Back when the men were made of iron and the ships were made of wood.

Treadle grinding machines were in use up to the 20th century. My friend still has his father's hand cranked grinding wheel on the garage workbench.

I know Henry Ford said that history is bunk, but many of us covered this in school history lessons.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

I know Henry Ford said that history is bunk, but many of us covered this in school history lessons.

Im from Manchester where the Industrial Revolution began. I am fully aware of steam, water etc, I just wasn't sure if it could generate the speed required for grinding, especially man powered grinders, of which a picture I have seen posted by Olivia on another forum. Evidently grinding doesn't necessarily require speed, more so pressure and determination.

I think everyone needs to forget about "ebay specials" in regards to honing in 1860.

You could buy a straight at the local drugstore(or whatever the equivalent would have been).

It would not surprise me if men did not shave every day and went to a barber once every week or 2.

/ There are no facts or research behind this.

My guess would be a Coticule. The site in Beligum that Andreses (Spelling?) mines its coticules was first opened in 1865!

Originally Posted by Sailor

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.

All I have to say is

Honing back in the day, would have been rather simple really. Foot powered wheels, were rather larger in diameter, so they did not need to be spun so fast. These would be (I imagine) rather useful in the manufacture of the new blades.

Once a new blade was in your hands, keeping it sharp would be a matter of just rubbing it on a rock. The shale deposits of the north east, the noviculites of the Midwest, so many places to get so many stones. They didnt really care about microscopically flat stones.

True wedge blades were the norm, and you really COULD just rub them on a flat rock to sharpen them up. Just as easily, you could rub the rock on the blade instead of the other way around.

A trip to the local stream bed would provide you with a highly polished stone you could use for that. =)

And that,,,, is how frowning blades are born!

With time, both my honing skills and my shaving skills have improved. But, I don't think too often any more about the sharpness of my razor while shaving. Even when I know I am not shaving with the sharpest blade possible, even when I know 5 minutes work would give me back a scary edge, I am not usually too interested in doing the work. (Talking about my personal razors.) Good shaves are fairly easy to come by even when the blade is a notch or two back of my idea of a sharp blade.

Possibly, the "notch or two back" of sharp might be about where the old-timers typically and happily shaved.

Hope this isn't too off-topic, but I'm sure I've read other accounts of people in the olden days who only used a strop to keep their razor sharp (other than the account already mentioned in this thread).

Has anyone here tried to see how long they could go leather-only? I'm thinking surely someone has. If it's doable at all in terms of what we consider a 'comfortable' shave, there may have been quite a few people who went that route back in the day - even if it wasn't necessarily the norm.

comfort is the key word. I went almost 20 shaves with one razor without stropping at all - where you set your standard will also be a variable (along with strop material quality and stropping skill) in determining how long you can keep shaving with the same razor