Did the common man have the skill and tool to hone his razor in the early 1920?

I do not find it to be very easy to hone a well working razor edge, despite of all things that are avaleble to buy like synthetic stones in grit progression, flattening plates, paste and internet available.

So I wonder how they did in the past, around 1800 - 1940.
Did they go to a specialisted on honing or the barber to have the razor honed.

Anyone have relatives that straight razor shaved let say in the early 1900-t and told you about it?


We can buy synthetic stone for progresion, we have flatteining plates, diamant paste, youtube and forum to find inf
ormation, usb-microscope.... Still it is a challange.

Coticules have been mined probably since Roman times.

Barber hones have been around a while, too. Swaty barber hones were first made in 1879.

I suspect it depends on how common you mean by 'common man' honing his own.

I would bet that many working class stiffs - common laborer - in 1890 might get a shave by a barber for a special occasion.

And the regulations about mugs indicates that the upper crust - the bankers and doctors - were also going to barbers. But probably more frequently.

So the middle tier is where I would expect the self-shavers to be. Tradesmen, small business owners, etc.

Of course, I just made this up in my mind and might have it all wrong.

And most towns had a sharpening business for knives, etc. I'll bet that guy did razors too.

In rural Louisiana my Dad told me that every small town had a bladesmith guy that sharpened knives and scissors cheaply. He'd make the rounds in a week or two and a man would switch out his razors.

Or they dropped them off at the barber shop.

It appeared that hardly anyone honed themselves. The guy would have a reputation for doing it very well.

[MENTION=30791]Slash McCoy[/MENTION], I wonder if they manage to get a good edge with the barber hone alone. Do someone today?

@mrb7, I would guess something similar. I will do little google and see if most had beard back then.

@petr, it makes sense, razors must been something expensive that time. They must been afraid of honing their razors bad. And probably they had limited time to learn to hone properly with affordable tools.
"man would switch out his razors", do you mean they got a temporary straight?

I guess having several straight and time/tools to sharpen them well at home are a luxury many did not have before.
But what I most wonder is if they shaved with really sharp and keen straights or just or had to endure straights just performing like HHT0/HHT1.

I would guess that there were some gents who farmed the sharpening out and some who did it themselves. Just like today. For some, the time saved on a mundane task was worth the money spent and for others, the money was more dear than the time. Plus, I would assume that the more rural a shaver was (most folks lived in the country until recently), the more likely a shaver was to be self-sharpening guy.

petr said:

In rural Louisiana my Dad told me that every small town had a bladesmith guy that sharpened knives and scissors cheaply. He'd make the rounds in a week or two and a man would switch out his razors.

Or they dropped them off at the barber shop.

It appeared that hardly anyone honed themselves. The guy would have a reputation for doing it very well.

Click to expand...

*stefan* said:

@Slash McCoy, I wonder if they manage to get a good edge with the barber hone alone. Do someone today?

Click to expand...

I have shaved right off my Swaty and hanging leather strop. It works, but I have been spoiled by much better edges and I can't say I enjoy the shave off a barber hone, but it can be done. If that's all you have ever known, I suppose it is good enough.

OTOH, I have set a bevel on sandpaper, midranged with a Swaty, and finished on diamond on balsa, and found no fault with the edge at all. I suppose back in the day, a paddle or loom strop with CrOx could have been used to finish a Swaty edge. Should work okay, yeah.

Slash McCoy said:

I have shaved right off my Swaty and hanging leather strop. It works, but I have been spoiled by much better edges and I can't say I enjoy the shave off a barber hone, but it can be done. If that's all you have ever known, I suppose it is good enough.

OTOH, I have set a bevel on sandpaper, midranged with a Swaty, and finished on diamond on balsa, and found no fault with the edge at all. I suppose back in the day, a paddle or loom strop with CrOx could have been used to finish a Swaty edge. Should work okay, yeah.

Click to expand...

Then I know the barber hone works in the hands of a skilled honer.

I did a little search about shaving/having beard and periods during the 1800/early 1900, the did shave/get shaved.
At least in the cities.

I was thinking that people in general would not swifth from straights to DE-shaving if they had well honed razors and the skill to use them.

May be that they who had the skill to shave with a straight never shanged to DE-shaving, only the young starting to shave after DE introduction?

I would wager to guess that if you where not a city folk you probably had a sharpening stone of sorts...you have to remember all harvesting tools where hand tools, axes etc...they all needed to be kept sharp to live. Plus we only see the razors that survived the test of time...correct me if I'm wrong but one would think that a straight may have been "disposable ", meaning the blade would wear out over time from sharpening and need replacing (hence the frame backs with replaceable blades)

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/438481-How-did-they-sharpen-razors-in-the-old-days
Some information...