Thread: Article "On Shaving" from Simplicity of Health, 1829.

Article "On Shaving" from Simplicity of Health, 1829, by Hortator.

"Candle snuffings & oil" ,,,,,even back then the hone was pain to learn.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

"Candle snuffings & oil" ,,,,,even back then the hone was pain to learn.

Yeah 184 years later, we still strive for the miracle edge!

Really like the article, thank you. It makes me laugh that you could take almost any monologue post on this site, add a bit of 17th century language and it would be hard to tell when it was written

Love the line "bad habits are often contracted from the necessity of constantly going to barbers' shops", just what else were these guys peddling? Hope he's talking about rusty shaving skills!

Thanks Martin for yet another interesting read from whatever archive you stumbled onto! I really do enjoy the straight forward ambiguity the author has for his audience. I will sum it up for those just reading comments.

You can't really shave well until you really shave well.
You probably can't strop until you can strop.
And, you can't hone until you hone. you also haven't finished unless you finish on calf skin massaged with oily candle snuffing!

Cleaning with silk is a unique idea. Silk can magnetize steel by moving it in one direction so maybe cleaning with silk decreases the edges vulnerability to oxidation?

Originally Posted by WhiskerHarvest

You can't really shave well until you really shave well.
You probably can't strop until you can strop.
And, you can't hone until you hone.

In other words: if you want to shave, strop and hone well, then shave, strop and hone! Sounds like the voice of experience talking to me...

A wise friend of mine once asked me if I had seven years of experience or one year repeated seven times. I think it is the same with life as it is with straight shaving. For real experience don't do something on autopilot; concentrate, observe yourself objectively, always be learning, and you'll get there faster.

Originally Posted by Apis

Love the line "bad habits are often contracted from the necessity of constantly going to barbers' shops", just what else were these guys peddling? Hope he's talking about rusty shaving skills!

You know a guy who spends too much time in a barber shop would likely be prone to smoking and chewing tobacco, coarse language and God knows what other bad habits. What's more, I can't imagine that barber shops back then didn't offer some adult beverage options and as is always the case, where there's adult beverages there will be those who don't know when to say when. "I'm going to get a shave" was probably code for "Yes, I'm going to have whiskers removed from my face but I'm also gonna hoist a few and hang with the fellas outside the long arm of female supervision."

thank god i found step 24 for i am indeed the most fashionable of fellows

Originally Posted by WhiskerHarvest

Cleaning with silk is a unique idea. Silk can magnetize steel by moving it in one direction so maybe cleaning with silk decreases the edges vulnerability to oxidation?

Sounds good. Anyone up for making a silk strop?

Weren't candles made with more tallow back then? Seems like if they were, they might lend something to the strop the way strop dressing or neatsfoot oil would.