Quote Originally Posted by Joe Chandler
Most people don't have all the stuff that say, I, have. Even in the old days, though, there was all the stuff available that we have today, with the exception of maybe the Nortons. People used straights all the time, so barber hones, Escher stones, Coticules, and all that stuff were probably more readily available (and much less expensive) than they are today. For those who didn't have this stuff, honing services were available, and apparently often utilized. The thing is that really not much has changed...it's just that with the advent of the internet, we talk about it more. Today, it's unusual, rather than being what everybody else does. You can get by with a razor, strop, and a brush today, same as you could 100 years ago. But just like 100 years ago, if you want to maintain your own, you need specific, specialized hones.
My mother's uncle, the only person I know who had grown up with straights and never switched to disposables had, AFAIK, only razors and a loom strop. He knew a barber who did his honing. The loom strop had only plain leather on it. That was it.