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

If you have a rounded edge, it means it has been maintained with an abrasive that is not aggressive enough. You'll see this with any razor maintained with pastes alone - a visit to some proper hones would take care of it. Now, before I sound judgmental, I do the same with my razors. I use pastes until the shave quality tells me I need to do something more. In fact, every time I feel the need to go to a double-edged razor I now know I should reach for a Shapton rather than a Merkur HD. It was easier in the days when that choice didn't exist! Every razor needs to be properly re-honed now and then.

Chris

Originally Posted by Lynn

The biggest problem I have seen in the old wedges is the extreme wear on the spines. This flattening and many times uneven and different flattening (from either grinding or honing) on both sides is what I believe causes the larger bevels on these razors. When I hone one that is in really good shape (when/if you can find one in great condition), the honing doesn't cause any wear near as much bevel wear and the bevel remains relatively small.

When honing these, unfortunately, there is the need to bring the steel down to a level where the entire bevel will hit the stone and this even causes more wear.

Lynn

Hey Boss, Can you explain further what you are saying in the second paragraph? oooh, you are speaking of the ones with worn, damaged spines not the new looking ones- is that it?

Yes OS that was what I was eluding too the ones with the larger bevels have been re-done using the SRP style of honing (I only call it that for ease of understanding) the bevels are re-cut and the edge is sharp as all get out..


It is the older ones that I was referring to, these were being used for shaving and the bevel is nothing like what we set and shave with... This was what was interesting to me, and it was what got me thinking about what was done to the edge in the past....
Lee actually found a pic of an older strop with a dished section in the middle which would explain it some, Honing like a knife with a raised spine and then using an abrasive paste on the dished strop could create the edge and bevel combo..

These things always get me thinking on how that edge was created and why it was done that way...

Great OS another mystery

hmmm. One cupped strop doesn't make for a wide spread technique, especially considering what can happen when a thing is chucked aside and no longer used.

Glen are the ones you're seeing also with heavy spine wear?

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

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

My largest is a mere 6/8. No hone wear. Taped bevel yielded average size bevel.

If the giants are made no thicker than this one .2inch at the toe, an extra 1/4 inch width will make for flatter sharpening angle. But like Puf says the spine thickness is not constant. All I have measured show reverse distal taper, being thickest at the toe

Lee. I don't quite understand how that strop is more or less suitable to wedge v. full hollow. It is not what I expected. Somehow from Glen's description I expected the cup to be from edge to edge- to fit the belly.

I have seen some barber hones with the same hourglass shape as your wood block. I only though Geez he for sure had no diamond lapping plate

Originally Posted by kevint

Lee. I don't quite understand how that strop is more or less suitable to wedge v. full hollow

Neither do I. But I can see how it could encourage a steeper bevel

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

Well I have confirmation of my thoughts. As I said some of the wedges I have seen had spine wear yet small bevels, well the thing is, even when I taped the spine, the bevel became larger. So what does that mean? Maybe during main honing the razor was on some type of jig, like a faux frameback for setting the bevel and then the jig removed for one type of stone which caused the wear? That's really odd, and has me even more intrigued than before.

Yep me too!!!
That was my thought also...