Thread: Some thoughts on how wedges were honed in the day...

Originally Posted by kevint

As to the rounded bevel, wouldn't that happen with any scenario that used little honing and a lot of stropping?

Especially if a lot of stropping was on one these! (this is the wikipedia photo glen mentioned - "antique leather barber's strop. It is best for sturdy wedge type blades. Hollow ground blades should be stropped on a hanging strop, since it provides a more flexible support for the blade.")



I don't know why the old bevels are different, but it's fun to imagine why. I wonder what kinds and varieties of strops were used 200 years ago?

Those old wedge razors have an affinity to Bowie knives as well as razors I am of the opinion that they were sharpened in the same manner. Of all my old wedges, I can say that only one would take a hone in the same manner as a hollow. This is of course for full wedges and sometimes up to a 1/4 grind. You may have noticed that the geometry of blade to spine is not correct on old wedges to make full hone contact sharpening really possible and if this method was used, then thin hones must have been used. You would even then still produce a large bevel as a result mainly near the toe. Often the spines are not uniform in dimension along their length with often a pronounced curve. This points to the use of a differing method of honing than we all use as standard.
It would be a benefit to me and I'm sure others on here if someone could find out how to best hone one of these B*^.*'s

PuFF