Thread: Honing Professionally

I haven't ever honed a razor and I'd likely never consider doing it professionally even when I learn the skill. But for those who do this, either for money or just to help out friends in need, how is it to be able to try and experience countless different razors?

Have you found one that was superior to your personal favorite and then sought to find one for yourself? In theory I think this would be the best benefit of professional honing

My biggest fear is that I would find hundreds more razors that I felt the need for. RAD kicks into overdrive and I have to live on the streets honing razors for ebay bids. Then my wife would leave me and I would have to sell off all of my razors, then I would get all itchy from beard growth and someone would mistake me for a meth addict where I would be put in a rehab facility and when I get out I would become famous for my addiction and I would make loads of cash then I would attempt to buy back all of my old collection only to find that one descent branded razor would cost more than even celebrity status could afford.
That said I would suggest picking up the occasional razor, hone her up and build your skill and collection then as your honing confidence builds you could try selling a couple then repeat.

Now, I haven't been doing this for very long at all. But in these recent months, there have been a couple that have crossed my path and I've said "Wow....would I ever like to get one of these!" when I've test shaved.

It has made internet searching a bit more fun...trying to find these gems. I think it's pretty cool to test other razors.

What Gerrit describes is essentially how I've humbly progressed. For the first time, I'm itching to stop testing other blades and would like to have some comfortable shaves w/ my own, familiar blades.

One to test this morn is the 2nd most beautiful non custom I've come across. That's subjective, but speaks to Gerrit's warning about RAD. Sending out a nice Geneva Sat was hard. 'Told the owner to ignore the whimpering sound coming from the left coast.

I also have no aspirations to do for dollars. I enjoy it alot, but can't see it ever being a feasible living except on a 'Lynn' scale. So I'm pretty happy doing for others, gaining experience, trying to get my head entirely around what the masters at it are telling me. Personal satisfaction is the driver. Getting to try blades is a nice side affect.

It's really fun to hone blades for others..! I don't do it professionally but I do help out others on the site.

I've definitely learnt a lot since honing for others. The biggest difference is that you can't go "that'll do, I'll try it out a couple of times and maybe play around with it later".

You have to get the sharpest smoothest edge possible and really get the best out of each blade above all else.

I've had a few that were really easy and I've had others that were total stinkers that I had to really work at. But those were the ones I really learnt a lot from..!

(the good news)The fun part is that after a while you have honed and shaved with just about everything under the sun, (the bad news) except your own razors.

I'm not honing for money, I never will.
I do, however, help out people around these parts who could use a hand in getting a razor sharp.
It is fun to hone, and it is cool to try out all the different blades out there.
The cool and scary part of it is that, as Stubear said, I really don't wanna send anything back which isn't honed to the very best of my abilities. So I tend to use quite some time on each of them.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't make any kind of living off of that
The learning and gained experience is the true reward for doing this.
And it's cool to be able to help out!

The only thing that you really discover is that the difference between a good razor and a bad razor is the honing.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

(the good news)The fun part is that after a while you have honed and shaved with just about everything under the sun, (the bad news) except your own razors.

The worse news is you get to hone one you really like but you'll never afford to own on income from honing