this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Straight Razors

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Straight razor use, honing and restoration

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A video of Ern's "Hexe" machine to grind both sides of a razor (www.youtube.com)
submitted 1 year ago by HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social to c/straight_razors@sub.wetshaving.social
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I was chatting with someone about Ern razors and mentioned seeing that he'd invented a better way to do hollow grinds. Found the link I remembered (Carl Friedrich Ern & family introduced the "Hexe" machine in 1893) but learned something new when I thought to look for one on Youtube: a current artisan (Ertan Süer) has acquired such a machine and is using it for some of his current production.

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[–] HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social 2 points 1 year ago

Ha! They still exist as a company and mention this machine on their about page.

[–] gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't believe anything was accomplished before CNC ;-) Such an elegant design. It is obviously "the right way". Thanks for the link.

I knew about Ern razors and of the machine, but had not seen one in action. Very cool!

[–] HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ha ya, how did we manage? Especially amazing is pre-integrated-circuits, I fear few in the future will look back and marvel at the crazy machines that mixed analog electronics with clockwork, vacuum, pneumatic, hydraulic. Yet somehow it worked and there were cameras and airplanes!? Hopefully we left docs somewhere in case of EMP or w/e and we need to rediscover that stuff in a hurry...

[–] gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 points 1 year ago

Hopefully we left docs somewhere

Yep. They're out there. I have no idea how we would find them without modern indexing and search technology, though. Reminds me to visit the Library of Congress again (largest public library in the US).

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, this is just the initial shaping? Nothing to do with honing the edge?

[–] HomeAwayFromHone@sub.wetshaving.social 2 points 1 year ago

Sort of. I think the initial shaping is done before the steel is hardened and this looks like the final grinding that happens after that but before the the edge is honed. And it all sort of has to do with honing the edge as you'd have to remove waaaay more metal on the stones if there was no hollowing done, even a near wedge has a bit.