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1895-Essay-on-Barbers-Razors-Razor-Hones-Razor-Stropes-Razor-Honing

This has probably been posted before, but I haven't been following all posts and have never seen it mentioned before. A booklet titled: 1895-Essay-on-Barbers-Razors-Razor-Hones-Razor-Stropes-Razor-Honing

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Funny, of what he lists I've owned a lot. I found the hard tempered blades easier to hone. Lucifer is one of my favorites. I have two. One to use and one to display.
 
There's surely some good info to be gleened... but he also is mistaken in a lot of it. He makes distinctions between German Razor Hone and another brand that marketed Thuringians as Thuringians, as well as claiming an American branded Thuringian (Which was advertised in the day, and in that book in fact, as being Made in America, despite clearly being natural stone) is an even finer than Thuringian stone mined in america. Such a stone never existed.

Page 22 is the ad. It's the Nat'l Soap and Hone co. "Finest" hone. They claim it's manufactured in the US. The author mentions it in his hone reviews as being mined in the US. I know for a fact it's a Thuringian stone. I used it two nights ago.
 
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This guy was clearly getting some advertising dollars for this book. He's throwing a lot of marketing around as "expert" opinion. It's still pretty cool. Also anyone catch the bit where he said to soak strops in Urine? Yeah Id pass....But....a Shark skin strop is now on my want list lol
 
This guy was clearly getting some advertising dollars for this book. He's throwing a lot of marketing around as "expert" opinion. It's still pretty cool. Also anyone catch the bit where he said to soak strops in Urine? Yeah Id pass....But....a Shark skin strop is now on my want list lol

I think the urine thing had to do with the ammonia content. That was the most common source of ammonia back then.
 
Yeah I have one of the Nat'l Soap and Hone Co. stones too. Definitely a Thuri. Mine looks to be a yellow green.
 
I think you got that one from me on eBay, years ago. I didn't list it as a Thuri, and it was in a lot with a bunch of junk. Ended ~$112 iirc.

Was a nice stone, but never got any use, so I put it out there for someone else to score. Got Soooooo many $25 offers to BIN on that one. Was laughing my *** off at all the guys who thought I really didn't know what it was.
 
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