Thread: Make a wedge

Bruno states the problem with a full wedge perfectly. The main difference between sharpening a razor and a knife is, that when you sharpen a knife, you raise the spine off the stone to achieve an edge angle in the area of 30 degrees. With a razor, the spine stays on the stone, and the edge angle is in the area of 17 degrees. To make a razor that is practical, you will need to invest in a 6 or 8 inch wheel for your belt grinder, so you can grind at least some hollow. Good luck on your journey.

Ok i've read every reply, some more than once. I don't use a belt grinder to make my knives. My knife bevels are flat with a bevel angle of 22(ish) degrees. My plan so far is this. Make my razor 5/8ths wide by 3/16ths thick. Grind my bevels flat to a true wedge, hone and polish the full bevels. Then tape the spine and reset the bevel and take this new edge to shave ready. In my head this would give me the honing benefits of a hollow ground razor with the characteristics of a true wedge. Feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I don't plan to start work on the razor for several weeks. Lots of knives to make first and i want this to be right.
Thanks for the replies.

I don't see why this would not work with tape. What I don't unmderstand is why you would hone before taping - why not just grind, polish then tape and hone? Be prepared to use some tape though especially on a bevel setter hone. I think the old razor makers knew what they were doing with hollow grinding.

Ukrob the first hone is to polish the bevels that would become faces in a way that would keep them absolutely flat, closer to a true wedge. It wouldn't make the razor shave any better.

Originally Posted by EatSticks

To say my beard is coarse and thick would be an under statement. So i'm thinking about making a true wedge razor.

Your thread could also read; " To say my beard is coarse and thick would be an under statement. So i'm thinking about making a full hollow singing razor razor , just like the Filarmonica 8/8 EPBD. "

It really seems your equipment is determining what you want to make. The thing is there is no such thing as a true wedge razor other than worn out old 1/4 grinds. If there is I've never seen one in razors dating back as far as 200 years.
That said, your project may turn out perfectly for you but you are essentially recreating the wheel.

Here's a suggestion if you are really keen on the flat grind. Why not make a frameback razor ? They are very stiff thin wedges which are easily honed. Best of both worlds.

It is possible, but I have had a few true wedge razors cross my path & I have ZERO interest in them. I have proved several times that a properly honed quality razor will tame any beard.

I'm a knife maker & learning razor maker myself as I only have about a dozen razors under my belt so far. What I will recommend is that you learn to shave with a shave ready razor first. Plan your design and get the feedback. You will find that most who make razors or hone razors will not talk very postiively about a wedge, 1/4 hollow will be about as far as most of us will go. A razor sharp knife from knife people is where we literally start when it comes to honing a razor, that's a fact.

Is it a pipe dream, not if you want to put the work into it. First you need to learn to properly shave, then learn to touch up a razor, then learn to hone. You know how to work steel & you can get your design worked out by time you are ready to take the steel to the grinder or anvil.

Originally Posted by EatSticks

I'm a bespoke bushcraft and carving knife maker, and for a while I shaved with a dovo shavette. To say my beard is coarse and thick would be an under statement. So i'm thinking about making a true wedge razor. The threads I read about honing wedge razors talk about restoring old razors as wedges aren't really made now. My knives are all scandi ground, flat bevels so i use a flat grinder not a wheel, no hollow grinds. I get all my knives to where they shave arm hair without much trouble, so i'm thinking this would be the same for a true wedge razor. Am i right about this or is there something i'm missing. Is making my own wedge from scratch and getting it shave ready something achievable by a bearded man who plays with knives, or is this just a pipe dream?
Thanks
EatSticks

Despite what people say, a coarse beard is not shaved any easier with a full wedge. It may seem like that initially, but that's only because the wedge will give a lot less feedback due to the weight. The actual cutting of the hair is not influenced. Also, taping said flat wedge is not going to give you the same as a hollow ground razor. the angle offset is very small, and as soon as you start removing metal, the bevels will get very wide very quickly, and very uneven as well. If you have coarse hair, you'll have to hone regularly.

If you want a heavy razor, use a large diameter wheel to create a quarter hollow razor. That way you still have a very heavy razor while still having some hollowing that will llow you to hone the razor regularly without developing the wide bevels.

Yep, a true wedge would not have much "life" to it without being re-ground. The edge would get too thick pretty quickly.

While I agree that what most people not in the know call wedges are simply near wedges, I do believe that vey old near wedges were ground on much larger stones than we have today - say 2 feet in diameter - and the amount of hollowing is very small.

That is not to say weges were never made - all you have to do is use a smaller stone sidewise so you can get right up to the stabilisers.

The second way was used extensively a long time ago by Wade & Butcher and others to produce barbers 'rattler' razors - the lower part of the grind is wedge shaped - truly wedge shaped but very narrow in thickness, and the wheel was used on its side. comeing forward in history another well-known example of a true wedge is the german Tuckmar 'Tee' razor - looks like a 't' seen face on with the lower portion being quite thin and ground with the wheel sideways on.

Going back in time again we have written evidence by people such as Kingsbury, the Kings Barber, and Stodart, co-experimenter with Faraday in the alloys of steel including true silver steel and user of wootz, both of whom talk about raising the back of the razor during honing, which from the looks of some razors is exactly how they were honed before being finished on strops with a compound and a lot of hang.

I can't honestly see a served-time (8 years or so) razor maker making something that would be so hard to maintain - they were practical people with vast experience and a rich oral tradition that is only just being rediscovered today.

For instance microtome razors (more properly called sectioning razors and resembling a straight razor rather than the other type which were little more than a blade) were flat on only one, not both, sides, and a support or sleeve was slipped over the spine for honing to maintain the correct angle (there were and are other methods, of course). I can see something similar being used for a wedge razor - I believe a member here, Geezer, actually made his own clip-type sleeves or something similar and had a degree of success.

If you can imagine it and have the skill to do it, then I suppose most things are possible - doesn't have to be a pipe dream.

Regards,
Neil

I think it will be very difficult to pull off but I say go for it, the only way to find out if it works is to do it.

Don't worry about polishing the primary bevel, it won't make a difference to the edge. Grind it to zero, tape it, hone it, shave with it, see how it goes. If you get a good shave from it you can always pretty it up later.

What grinder are you using out of interest?