Thread: Knowledge wanted

So im new at posting and new at straights. Sorry if im in the wrong place for this. I am doing a lot of reading to learn what i can but i was wondering if anyone could give me a heads up on something. What does the different grinding on these three razor say about the razors? The part where they have had an edge put on them. One is smooth and just moves from tang to blade, one has a one step right into the blade and the other has two sets of grind marks. Big thanks to anyone that can help.

I am new to the world of straight razors myself but have been a knife addict for some years now (pocket knives, fixed blade knives, I'll collect them all but my main love is kitchen knives and now straight razors lol) and can answer your question.

The roughness you see is known as jimping, its supposed to add extra grip........nothing really more to it. On a straight razor I personally can't see it making much of a difference and is probably more decorative than anything else


Edit: just re read your post and realised I've misread it. If it was a knife I'd say the ones with the step would have what they call a bolster, the smooth one I would call bolster less.the idea behind a bolster is simply to add strength to the blade. Is the smooth one a thicker blade?

I'm sure someone with more experience in straight razors will be able to give you a better answer

There is help in the library section The straight razor - Straight Razor Place Library .

Bob

I am still new myself, so not an expert. I'm not sure if there is a functional reason. They are called shoulders. Shoulder-less, single and double shoulders. As far as I know it is just different looks. But I will let someone with more experience talk about function.

YES!! Very helpful, i dont know why i had not found the library yet. So the "shoulder" is what I am refering to. Can the shoulder determine quality or age of a razor?

Originally Posted by Oneupsuperdog

Can the shoulder determine quality or age of a razor?

I don't believe so.

Bob

Originally Posted by Oneupsuperdog

Can the shoulder determine quality or age of a razor?

Perhaps not in and of itself, but double shoulers are used mainly on hollow ground blades. I am not certain this is an absolute rule, but I have not seen double shoulders on anything else. Hollow ground blades were common from around 1870.
Of cource, there are regrinds, which were a pretty common thing back when people used to take good care of their stuff. A regrind is when people took their old wedge ground razors to a blacksmith and had them reground into the more modern hollow grind. So, in theory the actual razor could be older than the hollow grind indicates.

Of quality it says nothing, as far as I know.

It won't affect price much... Some brands you may be able to date based on blade styles but I don't know much about dating razors at all. A lot of guys here have forgotten more than I will ever know about razors and can help with dating blades if you want that.