Thread: In The Days of Old ...

Wondering if there were honing services for all the straight razor users back in the day.

Possibly a corner cutlery type store that offered this service ?

Or were most very proficient at keeping a superb edge on their own ?

I imagine people would have had things like natural stones or barber hones for home use, or taken their razors to the local barber for him to sharpen.

In really older times you went to the surgery for a shave and wart cut off.

Can't remember where I read that, something to do with the pre 1700's

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

In really older times you went to the surgery for a shave and wart cut off.

Can't remember where I read that, something to do with the pre 1700's

Nope if you were a comman man, you went to the barber for almost any kind of surgery, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/brou...rsurgeons.aspx

Many barbers used to offer honing, and there were also door to door/carts that offered honing as well. I would imagine many shops that sold razors would too.

I cannot remember whether it was in a documentary or old movies from the silent era but I know I've seen something with an old guy going around on a horse drawn wagon with a grindstone and hones to sharpen peoples knives and probably razors, scissors and what have you.

my nan still rember having a man with a van comeing round her street once a month in the 60s shaprning things including her kitchen knifes and her husbands straight razor the company had been around since 1850 something
and i even beleve there are still companys that come out to kitchens and industral sights and do this cant imagin the do razors any more tho

The bottom lne is, in the old days it was far easier to have someone competent hone your razors than it is now.

In many parts of Mexico it is still quite common to see people who go door to door offering to sharpen knives, they would probably try to sharpen a razor if you asked them. And as a kid I remember seeing older men coming into the barbershop to pick up (not buy) razors, I didn't get why but thinking back the barber probably offered honing services. So pretty much what Stu, Holli and Jimmy proposed.

Also keep in mind that not everyone knows (knew) that keeping a great edge on a razor is very important. About a month ago I walked into a shop that sold razors and they told me that the razor was good to go out of the box, that it rarely requiered honing (maybe once every couple years) and that when it did you could use sandpaper!! I immediately made the sign of the cross and walked out of that blasphemous place...

My mother's uncle, the only person I know who never shaved with anything but a straight razor had a barber hone his razors.

My 1909 barbers' manual complains about the state of the edges of razors that customers bring in for honing.