But Bob, that wasn't the point. There was always ever to be meant one (1) honemeister, the great, powerful and venerable Lynn Abrams. I forget the name of the gentleman who first called him that, but it was meant as a humorous token of appreciation. So far, so good.
Then, however, and because certain people recognised that you can get more business if you sound more like you knew what you were doing, honemeisters (self proclaimed, mostly) were popping up everywhere. It typically went like this:
- Week 1: "Hello, my name is $SILLYNICK, and I want to learn to shave with a straight razor. I already got $ASIANIMPORTCRAP razor, and $CHEAPLOWGRITHONE."
- Week 2: "Yo, wazzup? I just bought a full set of $SYNTHETICS!!! I even took $3DIGITFIGURE of pics I want to share with you!"
- Week 3: First forays into honemeister territory lead to a two week ban from SRP.
- Week 6: "Right, I recently took some time off to learn to hone properly. I now got $JAPANESENONSENSE which is much better than $GERMANHONE or $BELGIANHONE! Free honing for everybody!!!!"
- Week 7-8: $SILLYNICK is using his second ban from SRP to set up a website with a shopping cart system. All over the social networks, people start whispering his name in awe. Because he puts TOTALLY AWESOME edges on blades and has, REALLY!!!! become A HONEMEISTER!!!!! [Sorry for the multiple exclamation marks, but they go with the territory]
- Week 9 and beyond: $SILLYNICK has got himself some $SERIOUSNICK, because business. Unexplicably favourable reviews pop up all over SRP, mostly to the tuneless tune of "WOW!!!! Totally awesome customer service!!!" or "BEST EDGE EVER!!!".
So, this has nothing to do with the superiority of the German dual education system. It's just that this honemeister nonsense has grown very, very old. There are some people out there who can hone anything. And I don't mean youtube five minute heroes from Russia who shave with sharpened shovels. I mean people who can hone any razor, irrespective of the defects it has. And who bring the time, patience, and dedication to actually
do that. Lynn, Glen, Bart, and a few others. Which is great, especially if you need things like a rare rusty vintage razor restored.
And then there is pond scum who call themselves honemeisters. And that is not so great in my opinion. YMMV, of course.