Thread: Classifieds/Honing Services

Not sure if I should put this here or somewhere else, but over the past few months I have observed quite a number of new SRP members who take up straight razor shaving, start honing, and very quickly begin to offer member services in the classifieds.

I have no problem with this, however it would be nice if there was some kind of way for other new members looking for these types of services, to ascertain the true experience/quality of the work they can expect to receive.

To illustrate : I have been honing my own razors now for approximately 12 months. It is possible for me to get a great (IMHO) shave ready edge on a razor, which produces a fantastic shave. My edges are not, IMHO, at the same level as the well known guys offering professional services, but from what I have seen recently, I could offer professional honing services at this point. Conceivably, I could charge $15 per razor, undercut the pros charging $20 per razor, and a newbie would think they were getting a great deal. The newbie would be wrong, and in my opinion, I would be ripping off our members.

To take this a step further, even services such as paypal have a verification process that confirms that you are who you say you are.

The answer to this issue is made even more complex, because the guys I would trust to verify another member's honing capabilities, are themselves offering such services and could be accused of having a conflict of interest in these matters (which would put them in an awkward position, which is not desirable either).

One solution to this problem would be to allow reviews of services by our members, however that has its own set of issues (i.e. if a newbie kills an edge due to poor stropping, its not the fault of the person who honed the blade, but it may be perceived that way by the newbie). IMHO if a razor is honed, it should be sent shave ready and the member shouldnt strop it before shaving - maybe that might be the answer.

In any case, I think we have an obligation to ensure our members are presented with adequate information that allows them to make the best decision they can - if they knowingly choose to send their razor to a newbie, then thats their choice, but to allow a practice to continue which puts our members at risk, is unwise in my opinion.

Anyway, I will leave it for the mods to ponder, and others (most notably those I refer to above ), to flame me.