Thread: Factory Honing

Tried out my NOS Dubl Duck (Bresduck) today and was wondering what the factory honers back in the day used? My NOS was wicked sharp and smooth and they wouldn't have had most of the nice synthetics we can use today or the time to really work it. I do realize skill was a big part of the process. Just curious if any one knows?

Today they use a flat grinding wheel followed by a stropping before sending them out, but I'm not sure what they used back in the day.

I know factory edges can be really variable. Sometimes there's no bevel, sometimes there's a bevel but not much else and other times they are actually pretty good.

It might be that you got one of the good uns, or possibly that the factory honing was done by hand to a high level. I imagine they didn't spend lots of time on each blade at the factory whatever method they used, just from an economy point of view, sonic I had to make an educated guess I'd say you got a good factory edge!

JMHO of course.

Some of the brands were sent from the factory with a "Hair Tested" stamp which meant they were shave ready... from an in house Cutler

You also have to understand that their were these guys that sharpened steel.. I know some of the guys on the other forums hate the word Honemeister (bit of jealousy working there) but the old trade name was a "Cutler" sometimes that person and the local barber were the same person, but not always... Cutlers were the Honemiesters of the old days they set bevels, they fixed chips, and brought the razors (and other steel) back to sharp... Then each barber or person maintained their own edges from there... Understand this is in general, not always, just like today some people do their own work, others don't..
My understanding from some of the old signs of the times, Cutlers were not very highly regarded either it was not a highly respected trade line...


Just some info I had picked up doing a bit of reading...

I'm actually pretty shocked how good the edge was back then. My Dovo I bought brand new when I first started was NOTHING like this one!! The wrapper stated "Hair Tested". Much respect to those old guys!

Whoever did the work on the final edges you can be sure wages were so cheap back in the day to hire enough skilled people to do so even in the factories. I've seen archived ads in local newspapers dating back to 1900 saying that certain brand razors were guaranteed not to "pull or tug". What factory would claim that today other than a custom maker ? What we consider the exception today was the 'rule' 1 or 2 centuries ago.

One thing I guess that should be added to this also is that most people knew how to shave with Straight Razors or at least had their Fathers Grandfathers Older Brothers etc: to help them..

An experienced person can shave a less than perfect edge in the first place and probably has the necessary skills to tweak an edge in with a strop or a Barber's hone...

Look at some of the posts in the Beginners sections of the hundreds of Newbies that get razors that are probably way closer to "Shave Ready" than any of the old factory razors, yet people can't shave with them... That old etch on the W&B's is way closer to the truth I think

"You Lather Well" "I'll Shave Well"

Remember 100 years ago, when most people started shaving (like today) they were younger than most straight razor shavers today. Starting off shaving peach fuzz off your face for a few years probably "honed" their technique.

It's no different than with anything else. In the old days things were done right and that was how it was expected. If someone bought a new razor and it wasn't shave ready it would have been returned as a defect. Sloppy work wasn't tolerated.I don't know what they used back then at the factory to hone but whatever it was the guys who did it were highly skilled and more important cared. It's the exact opposite from the world we live in now.

Something to think about as well is how much of a surcharge would you pay for a factory honed razor? Say it costs half of what a honemeister charges at the factory to pay for the wages and benefits and other overhead of the honing process, so call it $10. They want to turn a profit on this added operation so they sell it for $20 more, then the distributer and retailers increase that as well, so you are paying say $60 to have it factory honed.

And these costs might well be optimistic as I am not sure that honemeisters charge rates that correspond to the true value of their time and activity.

Add to that manufacturers are mostly European and as such have a strong reluctance to hire people as they can not downsize easily when demand flags off.

This could well drive prices for mass produced razors up to level of hand work.