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.

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...

Originally Posted by iKon

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

Back in the day is a wide range. I like to imagine that practices changed through the years as well as how commonplace certain practices were. Barbering saw major changes during the 200 years between the early 1700s and the early 1900s