Quote Originally Posted by bluesman7 View Post
I don't know for a fact, and maybe the 'vintage' experts here can either corroborate or set me straight, but I posit that the straight edged straight razor came into popularity at the same time that the razor factories started grinding with double wheel grinders. Until that time when the razors were hand forged and free hand ground on single wheels, smiles were more the norm. The double wheel grinders do not easily lend themselves to mass production of smiling blades.
Interesting thought.

And most straight edges after honing for a while end up with a smile.... Or a frown!

I am not saying that all mass produced things are bad but that design of them and materials used are a compromise and biased toward the mass production and cost thinking not the best overall quality.

Tim