Thread: visit to my barber

Attachment 110187Yesterday my Dad & I decided that our hair was getting a little on the shaggy side, so we ventured the ten miles to see the barber.
We both had our ears lowered, and made small talk, as is the usual routine. Over the years he and I have discussed old straight razors,
hones, and other barbering equipment, so he knew I collect/use straights. After we had paid up and was readying to leave, he told me to wait
a moment that he had something he wanted to give me. He went into his storeroom and came out with a really old barber hone. I could tell
it was a water hone because it had the slurry stone with it. He only had half the box, and said that at one time it had been mounted on a piece of wood.
The instructions that were with it are in German. The paper is so thin it disintegrates if you look at it the wrong way, but I enlarged them and this is the translation from
Google translate:

Instructions! The stones attack better when they are used with a stone to rub. you give it a little water on the stone and rubs off with the reamer until a fine slime occurs, then the time to master, in which it lays flat on the stone, and cut off from the accuses whereby after the diameter of the upper right bottom left over the stone, it then leads over the jerking turns and upper left to lower right leads. it is so quickly over admirably fine and durable cutters …. after use is the .......... to stone well and grease are to be kept strictly.

The ……is where the paper is missing, so I haven't the foggiest. The syntax seems odd as well, such as "from the accuses". Here is what I could make out in German, maybe someone speaks German and can translate better er besser.

Gebrauchsanweisung! Die Steine greifen besser an, wenn sie mit einem auf reib stein gebrauchtwerden . man gibt dabei etwas Wasser auf den stein und reibt mit dem aufreiber,bis ein feiner schleim entsteht, dann zeit man das meister ab , in dem man es flach auf den stein legt und gegen die schneide ab zeiht wobei man das messer von rechts oben nach links unten uber den stein fuhrt es dann uber den rucken umdreht und von links obe nach rechts unten fuhrt. man wird so schnell eine ubertrefflich feine und dauerhafte schneider ....nach dem gebrauch ist der stein gut zu ..........und fett sind unbedingt fernzuhalten.

I will post pics as soon as I can make some. I've attached a scan of the instruction sheet. Maybe someone can translate from that better than Google and I did lol.

'Makes me twitch. I love hearing from real barbers who knew what straight shaving was. That's one reason I alway love to hear any post from Gary Haywood in the UK.

I'm jealous you have a barber you can talk about str8s with. Sometimes there's nuggets of gold in little comment they might offer on technique.

thank you for posting.

Sounds like a warning against using oil to hone. Just use some lather and water after you flatten it and all is good. German translates weird like Japanese into English. It's just describing an X stroke pattern and not using oil on the stone.

I agree with the above (until a real german can come along and tell us otherwise). It appears that it's describing that it's fast on slurry and fine on clearer slurry or water, and that it quickly makes a fine edge. (and to avoid using oil).

Is it a thuringian type stone?

Consider yourself lucky to get a vintage stone of any type that was sold to the barbering trades.

Not a real German here but I speak a bit. Basically it says how it cuts better with a slurry, some techniques for sharpening, and at the end, yes, it says keep fats (oil) away from the stone, only use water.

edit: also just noticed you have transcribed "dann zeit man das meister ab" This should be zieht and Messer (from the label picture). This should make the translation a little more clear. abziehen = take away, Messer = knife

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Not a real German here but I speak a bit. Basically it says how it cuts better with a slurry, some techniques for sharpening, and at the end, yes, it says keep fats (oil) away from the stone, only use water.

edit: also just noticed you have transcribed "dann zeit man das meister ab" This should be zieht and Messer (from the label picture). This should make the translation a little more clear. abziehen = take away, Messer = knife

Used google translate and for some reason some of the original wording didn't compute, so I tried google search and also breaking the words up to see if I could get something that made sense. Abzeihen was one of those lol. I sure appreciate the help!