How did Grandpa Get By with One Stone?

[Raissermesser]

Probably going to be a barber hone, which most people got through the Sears catalog.

Most likely it came from a local store. Back then (early 20th Century), you could order through a store much like you could from a Sears catalog store in later years. This stone, best as I recall, has "Razor Hone" at the top. It's a dark reddish brown. If it survived a house fire, then it's pre-1930s. If not, it's between 1930 and 1940. Before he died, my father suddenly realized that his father's original razor strop would have been lost in the house fire, and didn't recall where he got his last.

 

[Raissermesser]

I wad thinking along the synthetic side. No 20k stone around back then. And I've never found a natural that can be a keen as a 20k edge. Not saying naturals are not keen. I just shaved with a great keen Jnat edge but it still wasn't as keen as a 20k.

It pretty much has to be synthetic, since the names and words are in an oval, best I recall, like it was formed in a mold. It's not carborundum, though. You can't feel any grit rubbing your fingers on it.

 

[Raissermesser]

There really is no way to know for sure how sharp razor edges were or weren't way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But, I'm fairly certain that a good number of barbers were able to achieve extremely sharp razor edges back 'in the day'. I recall seeing signage hawking 'very close shaves' that dated to the 1800s. I would hesitate to believe that shave standards were absolutely and universally lower a long time ago. At the same time, I doubt that there was as much fussing back then as there is in these forums today.

I had a barber's kit from the late 1800s that had an old very bellied oil soaked synth and an array of pastes and in combination that set up yielded some wickedly sharp edges on the razors in that box.

Coticules and Eschers have been around for ages and edges off those stones can be pretty spectacularly sharp. Same for Arkansas stones and abrasive compounds like FeOx and Chromox. Were barbers using .1 diamond on a hangin linen? I would guess not, but once an edge cuts a whisker effortlessly and flush, that's it and you can't cut it flusher or less effortlessly. That can be done rather easily with the aforementioned stones and/or very simple pastes.
I think the sharpness issue plagued the regular Joe at home though; no skills, no tools, no one to teach him how to hone a razor. The early DE blades hyped 'no stropping and no honing', which was probably a huge relief.

As for honing frequency, I find that my razors like to be honed often, and I like to keep them happy. I enjoy honing so it's a win/win situation for me.

They had manual grindstones that rotate through a box of water, but they were coarse. Some of the badly worn straight razor blades may have suffered such treatment. But a progression of stones had to be known for a simple reason that this is how my father got a good edge on his spaying blade for "cutting hogs." I doubt the grits he used got as high as 1K for that task.

Hmm... Have found badly worn oval whetrock cylinders about as long as your thumb. The grit was finer than a pocket carborundum stone, and was a gray color. This would have been for knives, though.

Now I want to look through an old wholesale catalog, circa 1930s, at my mother's. That would give a window into what they did.

 

[Raissermesser]

6. Sickles and such were sharpened on grind wheels either foot propelled or electric.

You also had to hone them in the field. Have a suspicion about the stone my grandfathers used for that, but it's a suspicion only.

 

[Raissermesser]

Old school was more pragmatic. You used what you had. And forums didn't exist so you wouldn't know what you were missing. Lol.

Why yes, forums did. They were around the pot bellied stove in the country store in the winter, between harvest and planting time, or at the livestock sale, or at the feed and seed store. Just am old enough to remember the end of those days.

Or maybe those days didn't end. Now it's retirees in the morning at the local eatery.

 

[Raissermesser]

According to my grandmother, her Father had one razor, one hone, one strop, and one brush. My uncle has the razor, strop, and brush in a shadow box, but for some reason the stone didn’t make it in the box and now belongs to me. It’s a 7” two toned thuri that’s about 1/2” thick. The strop is a 4 sided paddle strop that has at least one kind of paste on it (Red IIRC but it’s been a while). If it came down to it I could take one 5” Coticule and happily live the rest of my days with a sharp and comfortable razor. I think most of us have just turned this into a hobby instead of a chore.

Father's father' strop, from memory, is maybe 2" wide and has a handle. But it had two leather strops instead of a leather and a linen. No evidence of paste.

 

[Twelvefret]

You also had to hone them in the field. Have a suspicion about the stone my grandfathers used for that, but it's a suspicion only.

I doubt most carried a rock in the field.

 

[David]

I doubt most carried a rock in the field.

I Recall my grandfather talking about chopping weeds as a kid and said they carried stones on their belt in a little plastic cone shaped sheath that held water. If that was your job for the day I can’t imagine going in to the field without a stone.

 

[David]

I Recall my grandfather talking about chopping weeds as a kid and said they carried stones on their belt in a little plastic cone shaped sheath that held water. If that was your job for the day I can’t imagine going in to the field without a stone.

 

[alex1921]

As a kid when I would visit my grandma in Czech, small village, people didn't have lawnmowers. People used scythes. Everybody had one and that's how they sharpened them. Thx for the video.
Funny thing, that stone he is holding, exactly the same shape/color, my dad has one like that in his store. It's a stamped carborundum.

 

[Twelvefret]

I Recall my grandfather talking about chopping weeds as a kid and said they carried stones on their belt in a little plastic cone shaped sheath that held water. If that was your job for the day I can’t imagine going in to the field without a stone.

We carried files

 

[miguel]

I Recall my grandfather talking about chopping weeds as a kid and said they carried stones on their belt in a little plastic cone shaped sheath that held water. If that was your job for the day I can’t imagine going in to the field without a stone.

these are them

 

[SliceOfLife]

As a kid when I would visit my grandma in Czech, small village, people didn't have lawnmowers. People used scythes. Everybody had one and that's how they sharpened them. Thx for the video.
Funny thing, that stone he is holding, exactly the same shape/color, my dad has one like that in his store. It's a stamped carborundum.

They are really common. I've probably gotten a hundred or more of them in stone lots. Obviously a lot of people had them for this purpose years ago, and I suspect they kind of evolved into a general coarse kitchen hone for people in the early to mid 20th century just because everyone grew up with one and was familiar with it. I've got at least one, and I think two or three around here right now... just from the last maybe 5 lots of hones I bought this past month (haven't been buying for a few years, and sold all my carborundums when I stopped. I usually dump them all with a bunch of other garage/shop hones when i get enough to fill a large or medium flat rate box on eBay for like $5-10 plus shipping. No one pays anything for them, to be honest... there's just such a ridiculous number of them out there.

 

[EL Alamein]

Father's father' strop, from memory, is maybe 2" wide and has a handle. But it had two leather strops instead of a leather and a linen. No evidence of paste.

Sounds a lot like a Sears strop. I have one myself squirreled away in storage. I've never used it (long story) but had always intended to. Maybe I'll dig it out.

Chris

 

[Raissermesser]

Sounds a lot like a Sears strop. I have one myself squirreled away in storage. I've never used it (long story) but had always intended to. Maybe I'll dig it out.

Chris

Would it be stamped "Sears?" There's a chance it was given to him after the house fire.

Come to think of it, given the era, there's a chance that all the shaving gear was giving to him after the fire. If safety razors had made enough inroads locally, then someone could have given him a razor, the hone, and the strop simply because it was on hand and they didn't need it anymore.

 

[Flintstone65]

these are them

I use one of these when I'm out with my scythe -- mine is the plastic one. I have to say that it's a bit of a challenge to not spill your water when using your scythe. I use mine mostly as a weed-eater, sometimes as a grass cutter (but then I have to change to a different blade). Great tools, but I don't take too many swings without giving the blade a few passes of the stone -- I don't want to have to re-hone that big blade.

 

[EL Alamein]

Would it be stamped "Sears?" There's a chance it was given to him after the house fire.

Come to think of it, given the era, there's a chance that all the shaving gear was giving to him after the fire. If safety razors had made enough inroads locally, then someone could have given him a razor, the hone, and the strop simply because it was on hand and they didn't need it anymore.

Found mine and it is stamped "Sold Only By SEARS ROEBUCK U.S.A. De-Luxe No. 9259 Custom Made FINISHING SIDE" on one side and "SHARPEN ON THIS SIDE".

Chris

 

[stone and strop]

I think given a decent Barber hone one could get by quite easily and comfortably.
As a recent experiment I took an old Dovo (Fitz Bracht era) and proceeded to remove some edge degradation by giving it over 300 strokes on a Barber hone.
Shave was very nice and comfortable.
It would not replace an Escher or other fine finisher but I am as closely shaven as always and it was plenty comfortable.
We get carried away with all the high grit numbers but there are more than a couple Barber hones that rival modern day high grit synthetic edges.

 

[Twelvefret]

Maybe......I've got two stones, one belonged to my grandfather that called a needle hone. He worked at one of those US Southern knitting factories. The other is a barber's hone with two grit types. I might get an old razor to experiment a bit. Not going to hone any of my good ones.

 

[Steve56]

My grandfather and the family shared a coticule I think, dad said that it was a tan stone about the size of a pack of cards. Wish that I had it.

Post that needle hone Chuck, that’s fascinating! Breezy Wynn, Southern Knitting Mills?