Thread: True Wedge!

closes thing to a true wede i have ever seen



that shown i used sand paper to 2500 grit on the flats and crom ox strop to get a nice bright finish
then to make the edge work i used one layer of tape and finished to 8k

Wow, that is beautiful. I have to agree about the taped spine on a wedge. I bought my first wedge a few months back and when it came, the person who had honed it used tape and now it looks a wee bit goofy

If you make a perfectly flat wedge, be prepared to use tape for honing. Otherwise you'll be honing forever. And you'd best use multiple layers of tape as well, or possibly a shim. If you don't then you'll get very wide (and possibly uneven) bevels.

There is a reason true wedge are not often (ever?) encountered in the wild. They're very impractical.

Originally Posted by 111Nathaniel

That is one beautiful wedge you got there, you probably get bbs every time, except under the chin. your probably right that most vintage razors weren't true wedges. But i think i'll like to see if it works, if not the steel is still there if i want to hollow it out latter. i'll be going against the wisdom of all the straight razors makers past and present but hey i'm young i'm supposed to be stupid.

Chuck Norris would shave with that wedge of yours, his beard would make that wedge sing, then chip into peaces.

I once shaved with a wood splitting axe. It was a high end fiskars axe belonging to my best friend. His FIL had borrowed it to split wood... on cobblestone flooring. I repaired the edge, and because it was basically a giant wedge with a slighly hollow (quarter hollow I'd say) I took it to my hones after the repair and finished it on my 8000 norton. It passed the HHT .

the shave was good, though a bit nervous. The handling was not superior (the handle got in the way a lot), my wrist tired rapidly (the thing weighed 5 pounds or so) and I was aware that if it bounced or sliced, it would go through my jugular without stopping. Still, it was very interesting.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I once shaved with a wood splitting axe.

YIKES!

Charlie

I don't have a proper knifemaker's belt grinder, but a British AJS bandfacer, which uses 6x43 belts, and a horizontal table around 10" by 6". I don't think friction would be significantly increased if you were to make an 1/4" thick extension to screw to the top of the table, under the belt, ground down to a convex section with feather edges at the 6" wide ends. I believe this would give the very slight concavity which makes the original wedges easy to hone.

That's amazing!

I have quite a few wedges in my collection but i doubt any are truly a full wedge, +1 on what Bruno has said, if you make a full wedge be prepared to either use a lot of tape or a shim, I can speak from personal experience, I have recently made a true wedge, and boy did it take some honing. Even if your belt sander back plate looks pancake flat i think you will still have slight high and low spots on the blade which will get magnified at the bevel if you understand what i mean. Remember you will have to remove hardened treated steel from the whole blade face before you can start to refine the edge, and as to the 'bevel' angle, which is pretty critical for a good shave, you will have to calculate your spine thickness and blade width wisely. You would probably have to lap both blade faces flat after final grinding to achieve a truly flat wedge which would (after some time) hone without tape successfully. As for shoulder profiles I am limited to the wide drum of my belt sander and playing around with my dremel which can be real fun. Good luck with the project!!