Thread: honing old wedge blade without making a large edge

Originally Posted by rodb

I'm not sure if anyone knows for certain how the true wedges were initially honed. Possibly there was some sort of guide that slipped on or a series of slack strops with varying grit pastes, low to high. I usually use up to four layers of tape and heavy pressure and coarse stones to set the initial bevel and it will take a bit of time

There are no true wedge blades in any kind of production numbers. Every shaving blade was ground on a wheel therefore, it was hollow to an extent and honing was exactly the same then as it is now, you lay the spine and the edge on a hone. If the grind is accurate you end up with an even bevel. If the grind is uneven, you end up with a bevel of variable width. The amount of steel in between the spine and bevel is irrelevant in terms of the bevel width - so long as it is hollow ground.

I've had a few that were nearly ruler flat bevel to spine with 1/4" - 1/2" of bevel if I didn't use tape and the spine didn't look all that worn. These were pre 1840 razors

Originally Posted by UKRob

There are no true wedge blades in any kind of production numbers. .