Originally Posted by
DaveW
I have a thought on the second steeper bevel that a cutler or razor maker would've put on the razor, in terms of how it was classically done. Holzapffel III describes in honing a razor (at which time there were probably a lot of wedges and near wedges, to avoid ruining the temper of razors and to reduce warpage in hardening and tempering) that a cutler or a barber or anyone else skilled would use a hone like a charnley by using it to "strike" the edge left by more coarse abrasives. Presumably, this would be lifting the edge slightly on a very fine cutting stone like a charnley, and striking off any wire edge or particles that may be there, instead of polishing the entire bevel.
That would've be a great method for a newbie to use, because they wouldn't have the skill to strike that second bevel consistently and would gradually chase the angle higher and higher, but a skilled barber or maker would be able to do it pretty easily, and it would mitigate the need to do a lot of metal removal.
An edge struck lightly by a charnley would hardly be much removal of metal, either, so it would not be too hard to refresh the entire edge with a coarser stone later and restrike the edge without having to run through polishing all kinds of parts on the razor that never are introduced to the cut, anyway..
(I believe that edition of the book was around 1850, as various techniques for grinding a razor more hollow are discussed in it, as is the conondrum of making those thin grinds and troubling the temper of a razor. If it was later, there'd be no discussion about ruining a razor's temper because manufacturers had gotten closer to perfecting the kind of grind we see on modern razors).