Thread: My first "real" attempt at honing- let the criticism fly!

I had a couple guys over last weekend and I purposefully skipped shaving on Friday so they could see the razors that they were going to buy from me in action. Now these were locals that have just been trying to get into wet-shaving, so I wasn't looking to make a huge profit. I think I probably ended up with 4 or 5 dollars more than I spent. But that was just from rounding up. I spent between $10 and $15 per razor on ebay before shipping total between $15 and $20-- made sure they had good pictures, unworn spines, and even heels... Then when I got them in, I honed them... I didn't put them under a microscope, just looked to make sure there weren't any chips using a 10x photography loop my wife happens to have!

The guys came on Saturday and I let them know that I would shave test each razor for them (4 total razors to test) so each razor got to do two passes on a quarter of my face (kind of, one got the mustache and chin). But I wouldn't hand a razor to anyone unless it shaved my face well!!! Three passed with flying colors then I got one that did not pass the shave test, replaced it with a 5th razor that I showed them, which passed beautifully. After we were done we rubbed the blades down with rubbing alcohol and then dried them.

So they ended up getting three of the razors and I just got an e-mail saying that one of them was pulling a little, and I asked about the stropping technique and they admitted that it may have been the problem, but I also said I would be happy to re-hone and fix the edge and perhaps look at the stropping technique!

I wouldn't sell a razor unless it passed a razor test by me. I didn't even start honing razors until I had a paradigm from one of the meisters to compare the shave quality! Now are mine perfect? No, but I will not sell something to someone that I wouldn't feel comfortable shaving with myself. If I say that a razor is shave ready, I have shaved with it myself and it was comfortable.

Now as far as metal goes, unless it is rusty, it doesn't hold pathogens well at all. You can get tetanus fairly easily from a really rusty old blade that you haven't cleaned, but if the metal is even simply rinsed and allowed to dry, bacteria have a hard time surviving on it. And if you use isopropyl alcohol, you can be assured that it is sterile! Why do you think doctors and nurses rub you down with alcohol prep pads before doing any kind of blood work?

YMMV, but that is my take!

Hey there, just wanted to add my 2 cents to this business of infection/pathogens. Now, being in the medical field (surgical resident) here in the UK, I have to be somewhat 'well-versed' with infection control and prevention of surgical infections. Please be advised that I'm no microbiologist nor do I profess in being an expert in infection control.

Common misconceptions are sterility and asepsis. Sterility is where there is no biological contaminants whatsoever whereas asepsis is the control of biological contaminants with the potential causing Infection. Although we strive to attain sterility (especially in the operative field), it is practically impossible! Unless you work in a CDC lab, that is
So wearing gloves etc when you're not performing surgery, is in my opinion a bit of an overkill.

Now in the medical field there are several ways of achieving decontamination, ranging from 'dry' methods using special gases, heat (I include autoclaves in this) etc and 'wet' methods using disinfectants such as Alcohol, glutaraldehyde etc. In practical terms, for straight razors, 'wet' disinfection is the only viable way to go.

Out of all 'wet' disinfectants, the only two I know of that are stable and non-irritant, are alcohol and Lysol. These will 'kill' every contaminant except for spores.

Finally, the 3 main contaminants that people should worry about, mainly because there are no known cures, are HiV, Hep B and Hep C. Based on several worldwide studies, the risk of transmission of HiV from dry (ie not soaking with fresh blood) blades or needles is about 0.3%, that of Hep B ranges from 1 to 40% (because the virus can survive up to 1 week on surfaces) and finally that of Hep C is about 1.8%.

Soaking the blade in alcohol (preferably 70%) for 5-10min and letting it dry rather than wiping or washing it off, is more than enough to kill almost every contaminant and would be safe enough for me to shave with (although I personally think that it might be a bit of an overkill, but hey, if you're worried, then better be safe than sorry!)

Sorry, for the long-ish response but I hope that clears a few things....

Regards,

Ash

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

........ For me such behavior, referring to the OP, someone coming here without knowing how to hone and then posting an ad on ebay claiming to be a professional, might be defined as dishonest, unscrupulous, or maybe reprehensible. That is my take on selling sizzle with no steak.

Gentle, kind, and compassionate point of view herein offered IMO demonstrates the open minded attitude and gentlemanly approach characteristic of this forum which is frequently assailed as being otherwise from parties elsewhere.

I am as impressed by the generous tone of the responses as I was shocked by the OP.

I don't know why my formatting keeps being removed. I am a firm believer in paragraphs.I just wanted to take a few moments before my account is deleted by those with more access to the SRP servers than I have, to impart some perspective on you boys.Let me start by saying, those who have truly mentored, not just me, but everyone on this site- and that doesn’t mean you have to have “mentor” in your little “Who I am” box; thank you. Glen, you have been objective and informative without being insulting; something JimmyHAD, I fear, will never master. Straight razor shaving is fun and it’s a nice change to take something you have to do and turn it into something you want to do.Regardless of what any of you think, I have every right to post a listing on ebay to offer a service; in fact, I looked into it just to make sure. There are no formal schools, accreditation or licenses required to hone razors- what is required is time, stones and interest or desire. I possess all three.As shooter and mainaman said toward the beginning of this thread, “Pictures don’t really mean all that much, it’s the shave that counts” and the razor I just shaved with (which I honed) did an excellent job. The Dovo I used in the pictures in this post has a warped blade but I was still able to remove the edge and get it to HHT and shave sharp. Glen, just so you know, I had breadknifed the blade in these pictures - it had a slight frown which I believe is a result of the warped blade and why the person I purchased it from sold it in the first place- and it was probably one of you reading this thread. That is unscrupulous if you ask me.Here lies the problem with all of the attitude and judgment you have been passing. Calling my actions “reprehensible, dishonest, unscrupulous” (I have a thesaurus too, Jimmy). You have never shaved with my razor or one that I have honed and you all seem to agree that pictures of a blade can’t determine whether or not it’s going to shave well. So, you are reacting to something you know nothing about simply by assuming that, because I haven’t honed 10,000 razors over the previous ten years I am completely unable to produce and edge that’s shave worthy.Because you disagree with what I have every right to do, many of you feel it is acceptable to send messages to my ebay account asking questions- posing as a person who is interested in what I am offering. Well, I’m not like you and I’m glad that I’m not! Where do you get off disrespecting someone like you have been? What gives you the right to be rude, to make judgments and assumptions, to waste my time and the time of people who are seeking my assistance? If you want to express your negative opinion toward me on SRP, that’s your prerogative because I posted something in a public forum requesting advice from “experts”; although, I haven’t received much advice at all- mostly negativity and criticism. I understand and even expect that there are going to be people out there with the mentality that they have a right to behave as you have in a public forum. Really, those of you who have engaged in this type of behavior should truly be ashamed. You ostracize me because I haven’t been in your club long enough? Because I haven’t posted enough threads saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing! PLEASE HELP!” giving you the opportunity to jump in and pat yourselves on the back by belittling another person and demonstrating just how much you know? I started posting on SRP looking for guidance with something I had never done and instead, you have made the experience such a negative one and I would rather figure this out through trial and error than ask for guidance from you guys. That should tell you something about you.Ash, I would like to thank you for the detailed explanation about sterilization. I was going to say basically the same thing but you beat me to it. I would like to add that doctors wipe your skin with alcohol prior to an injection for two reasons. One, it cleans the skin of oil and dirt on the injection site which is better than pushing foreign matter into your body; however, it does not sterilize the area; that’s why iodine is used during surgical prep. Second, this practice is continued mostly because it has been performed for so long and people expect it. My source for this information is a 65 year old father in law, MD. & PhD. I value his opinion far more than the lay person who believes what he’s been told but hasn’t performed any scientific studies or consulted anyone who has. Now, let’s take a moment and talk about censorship. Some of you already know that my IP address has been blocked, so, in order to access this thread (or SRP at all) I must find an alternate route. I imagine the only reason my account hasn’t been deleted is because the thread would disappear and it’s far more convenient to let the users of SRP believe that I have chosen to run away with my tail tucked between my legs. That’s not the case. I was kicked out because I didn’t roll over like a good little boy. These are the mentors and moderators who have made this decision for you so you’re not exposed to something they don’t feel is safe. At least, that’s my assumption as nobody has bothered to communicate with me about any of this beyond the harassing messages to my ebay account. But hey, it’s your website and you have every right to administer it however you choose- that’s the wonderful thing about this country- you can do (for the most part) whatever you want. Glen, I’m just going to go ahead and assume I’m not welcome at the meeting in October; which is fine. Aside from you, I don’t know that there is going to be anyone at the meeting whom I would like to meet anyway.Just for kicks, I would like to tell you why I decided to set up a listing on ebay to offer a honing service. I only have so many blades and, while I will be acquiring more, I would like to hone my honing skills. I don’t have much desire to shred through razor after razor, grinding off the edge just so I can put another one on it. I too (maxi?) do experiments as I’m honing to see what works for me and what doesn’t. When you don’t have a true mentor standing next to you guiding your hands and technique, this is how you learn something new, or at least how I learn something new. If I spend one to six hours on a blade and am paid less than twenty bucks, does it really seem that I am in it for the money? Of course, you don’t know me, so I strongly suspect you think I’m going to slide a blade 20 times across four or five progressive hones and call it good. Well, you just go ahead and keep thinking that. The rest of you who are terrified that I will ruin the shaving experience of another human, you all have my word that I will do my best to provide the best edge I am capable of and if I can’t achieve what I believe is an acceptable edge, I will notify my customer and refund their money. The people I have communicated with about my service have been made aware of this as well. I almost forgot. “Profeshonaly” is not a word. That’s why it’s underlined when you type it. The spelling you were looking for is “professionally”. You know who you are. Finally, as it has been made nearly impossible for me to access my SRP account, and I am certain it will be completely impossible, if anyone would like to contact me, my user name here is my e-mail address @aol.com. Send me a message if you would like to.

Originally Posted by mustangman6799

The spelling you were looking for is “professionally”.

Yeah, I usually notice what needs corrected with spell check. I would suggest, if you are going to post a long monologue, that you hit the enter key every once in awhile.

This breaks the text up making it easier to read on a monitor.

I illustrate that here with these few sentences.

Otherwise it is doubtful that anyone will do more than skim your text .... if they even do that.

I read it. It says (among other things) that he does not own many razors and wants to hone his honing skills, so he will do so by offering this service on eBay.

Dear OP,

You would already have been banned and forgotten about in the world that you came from. There is no need to seek an exalted status by disrupting this environment. You have violated not only the spirit of this forum, but it's rules.

Good bye and Have fun.