Who is honing the Fillys at Classic now?

Chris L · 10-09-2008, 04:38 PM

I ordered a couple of the Filarmonica Doble Temples from Classic a few days back. I ordered them without the sharpening service since I want to hone them myself. Barbara from Classic called to say that the only Filly stock they have left is "pre-sharpened" for $20 extra (I don't recall that mentioned on the site but I may have overlooked it?). I asked her if Lynn had honed them and she said she didn't think so and said that Classic uses a few other guys to hone razors.

Who honed those razors?

Thanks for any info. I liked the $119 and the DIY price, but as long as I know who honed them, I'll most likely send Classic the additional $20 per razor.

Chris L

OLD_SCHOOL · 10-09-2008, 05:05 PM

Wow, I was under the impression only Lynn does their honing. An "exclusive" type thing.

Guess I was mistaken.

EDIT: That shouldn't be your problem though, I thought sharpening service was something you had to specify. Should read the fine print and see what it says.

gssixgun · 10-09-2008, 05:15 PM

I also was under the impression that Lynn did all of Classics's razors, perhaps she was just mis-informed....

OLD_SCHOOL · 10-09-2008, 05:16 PM

I just had a look and there is no mention of it being presharpened, however a lot of their limited editions are. The link Ray provided says they still in stock, but if you go to the limited edition part of classic, there is no mention of the filly. Guess their orders must be through the roof.

Chris L · 10-09-2008, 05:21 PM

I'm going to try to get the honing service cost waived. I thought there was no mention of pre-honed on the site in regard to the Fillys I bought and I certainly didn't specify that. They went so fast I guess the only ones left were pre-honed. We'll see what happens.

Chris L

OLD_SCHOOL · 10-09-2008, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris L

I'm going to try to get the honing service cost waived.
Chris L

And so you should. I certainly would.

davisbonanza · 10-09-2008, 05:29 PM

Hey guys,
I ordered one two nights ago and I did order the honing service. Yesterday I got an email that the razor shipped so here is my email to them and their response. It is still not clear who is actually doing the honing but it does mean that I will get my razor sooner than I expected, I just hope it is really shave ready. My honing is fine and progressing but after four months, I figured it was time to see what Lynn's fork feels like so I hope we get to the bottom of this.

To whom it may concern,
I purchased a Filarmonica last night and today I received an email
stating my order has shipped. I purchased the honing service, I
wanted to double check where the razor is being shipped. I thought
it had to go to Lynn Abrans first to be honed then shipped to me.
Please contact me and let me know how that works as I just wanted to
be sure my razor gets honed.

Thank you,
Dave
order #2053793

Hello Dave,

The razor is being sent directly to you because as it turns out we had a pre sharpened razor so we sent it to you.

Please be assured the razor already went to the sharpening service and has been professionally sharpened and is shave ready.

Thank you for your patience and patronage,
Customer Service Team
ClassicShaving.com

Chris L · 10-09-2008, 05:42 PM

If Lynn did not or is not honing these razors I would like to know who is. If someone else is honing them, I would have no reason to doubt that the honing would be up to par, but I think I'd be entitled to know who honed it. Kind of like enjoying a fine meal at a restaurant and wanting to know which chef cooked the meal for me type of thing.

Chris L

Lynn · 10-09-2008, 06:33 PM

Hi Guys,

I have traditionally done all the honing for Classic Shaving. When they decided to sell pre-sharpened razors and have a lot of their stock done, they decided to share the love. Elbonater that you know from here has also honed some of these razors. I still do all the razors that come in for sharpening service.

Thanks folks,

Lynn

Utopian · 10-09-2008, 09:05 PM

I ran into this same issue. I ordered a razor with no mention of a honing service and then found a message on my answering machine (stubbornly avoiding the term voicemail--it ain't mail and I won't call it that

) saying that they ONLY had pre-sharpened razors so they needed me to pay an additional $20. I emailed them and said that I ordered the $120 non-honed razor and, if possible, that is still what I wanted. If I knew for certain that it was honed by Lynn I would have sprung for it just for the sake of curiousity but I wasn't interested in an unknown honer--kinda like a negative version of what Chris said. Anyway, I got an email back from them declaring that they had just shipped me an unhoned razor, which is odd since they had told me less than 24 hours earlier that they only had honed razors left.

Oh well, I'm happy because I'm getting a great razor at a great price. Since I already have one of these, this one is going to get stored away until I can convince one of my nephews to start shaving with it. The fact that the oldest one is only age five means that this razor will be waiting a while for its first use!

Chris L · 10-09-2008, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Utopian

kinda like a negative version of what Chris said.

The same thing happened to me. I had the same message: only "pre-sharpened" as they call them were left. After I asked her to find out who honed them and call me back, she called back and didn't have an answer on who honed them, but DID tell me they found some unhoned and were shipping out my order that I originally asked for (unhoned) and I see by email that the order has shipped. So......

Chris L

hoglahoo · 10-09-2008, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Utopian

Anyway, I got an email back from them declaring that they had just shipped me an unhoned razor, which is odd since they had told me less than 24 hours earlier that they only had honed razors left.

How to un-hone a razor:

YouTube - Straight Razor Honing on a Brick (This is a joke)

Chris L · 10-09-2008, 10:23 PM

Come on, Lee. Don't scare me like that! I recognized that vid and didn't even need to watch it!

Chris L

Utopian · 10-09-2008, 11:23 PM

Yeah, same for me but it's always nice to be reminded. That is a great video!

fpessanha · 10-09-2008, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

How to un-hone a razor:

YouTube - Straight Razor Honing on a Brick (This is a joke)

ARGH!!!!

Tha WAS a Zeepk, right?!!!

Tony Miller · 10-09-2008, 11:34 PM

I can personally vouch for the honing by 'Elbonator". Chris has honed all the razors I sold over the past year and a half as well as doing my own, persoanl razors. he does a fantastic job. I originally honed my own then switched to him as my business grew and my time declined. I chose him over Lynn solely based on him being nearby to where I am. When I stoped selling razors my work for him declined and Chris started doing work for Classic on the in-stock prehoned pieces.

No worries guys.

Tony

persco · 10-09-2008, 11:40 PM

I purchased one of the Classic "pre-sharpened" Filly's a couple of months ago. Before I bought it, I sent a message asking if it was "pre-sharpened" by Lynn, and was only assured that it was shave ready. In other words, they never answered my question directly. I said to myself, whatever, and went and bought it anyway. I also purchased a Henckels Friodur from Vintage Blades that I requested be sent to Lynn for sharpening before it was shipped to me.

I am relatively new to straight shaving, but I did find a rather big difference between the two razors in terms of sharpness. The Friodur is a very nice shaver, the Filly... I am still struggling a bit to find a good shave with it. It is just not very sharp. It was certainly ready to shave with, but was still not as sharp as either the Henckels or the Le Grelot I bought (sharpened by Martin at Rasurpur).

So there you go, I guess.

s.

loueedacat · 10-09-2008, 11:50 PM

stick with the filly. I have that and a Le Grelot sharpened by Martin as well, and they are both awesome. It is really hard to hone the Filly, I think because the steel is hard and it has a vexaxious smile, but when it's right I like it more than the Le Grelot and hold its edge really well. It's very heavy stiff hollow which really is a cool mix.

I found the easiest way to deal with the smile is the so called professional strokes - namely honing the ends in separate strokes from the middle part. rolling x stroke I'm still working on.

persco · 10-10-2008, 12:33 AM

Thanks Loueedacat. I'm not ready to give up on it yet. But vexatious really does describe it well! I use just a coticule and CrO paste. Maybe I need to start at a lower grit and try to reset the bevel? It's sharp, just not very sharp, if you know what I mean...

s.

Utopian · 10-10-2008, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

I can personally vouch for the honing by 'Elbonator". Chris has honed all the razors I sold over the past year and a half as well as doing my own, persoanl razors. he does a fantastic job. I originally honed my own then switched to him as my business grew and my time declined. I chose him over Lynn solely based on him being nearby to where I am. When I stoped selling razors my work for him declined and Chris started doing work for Classic on the in-stock prehoned pieces.

No worries guys.

Tony

I'd like to clarify that my objection was that I had no clue who the honer was. I certainly had no objection to Elbonator's honing. That would have been impossible since I didn't know who the honer was.
Tony, I figure if you recommend him we should all accept that Classic Shaving's pre-honed razors are good to go!