In the 1800 and 1900s, unless you were wealthy, most men were probably lucky to be able to afford a single razor, not the dozens many of us acquire today.

Men might have a dedicated razor strop, but I suspect many men stropped their razors on their belt, horse saddle, pants leg, or chaps. They may have had to visit the barber to have their razor refreshed on a barber's hone and strop. For more serious sharpening, they would have to wait for the traveling sharpening man to come by and sharpen their knives, axes, scissors and razors. The sharpening stones used were likely to be whatever stone was available locally, perhaps a smooth stone from a stream with one side flattened. Today, we can purchase a variety of synthetic waterstones, diamond hones and ceramics and natural sharpening stones from Germany, Belgium, Wales, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Italy, Arkansas, Vermont, etc. I cannot imaging having to rely on a single stone for all my sharpening needs.

They may have had some pigments like ochre they could use for polishing, but they certainly did not have graded synthetic diamond or CBN sprays we have today. Thus, the blades we shave with today probably have a much keener and smoother edge than those of years past. It is remarkable that we can get such good edges on blades that were manufactured well over 100 years ago. I suspect we may get better edges than the original owners ever achieved.

The advantage that they had back then was the shared experience among males, a right of passage from boyhood to manhood. I can remember how excited I was when, as a boy/young man, I finally had enough peach fuzz on my cheeks that I was allowed to pick up a DE razor with a sharp blade in it rather than the empty razor I had been allowed to play with previously. I wish my father had shown me how to use a straight razor instead; as far as I know, he never owned one. I am now making up for decades of time.