I always wondered, how did they used to hone the razors, which stones they used to use and how sharp was the edges on Heyday of straight razors mostly before and just after WW2. I know local barbers used to offer honing service(if I'm not wrong called 'razor setting' back in those days) and perhaps tool and knife sharpeners as well?
There was an old barber where I live, he was a proper old-school barber and used to shave the neck with a proper straight razor. I gave him two razors to hone and when he gave me the razors back, they used to shave very smooth and I asked which stone he was using and the stone he was using looked like a bbw and synthetic coticule combination. Both sides weren't flat as a matter of fact both sides were curved in, When I told him about the way I hone; he said he never heard of taping the spine and the spine supposed to wear off evenly on both sides tapering from toe to heel. Checking the edge regularly, after stropping during the honing process. He told me that he uses Vaseline when start honing and after that cleaning the stone and the blade with white spirit and use lather before finish honing.