How would you hone your razor? Today we're using diamond pastes, Belgian, Chinese and Japanese stones, Norton water stones, CrO pastes, etc. We look at the blades under a microscope. Pretty high tech and exotic by 19th century standards. I gotta figure the average 19th century man had a strop and a barber stone. Either his standard of sharpness was lower or we are going about this the long way.

Goog