Thread: are smiles good?

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Some smiles are good

upper lip has a slight frown woooot

Originally Posted by penguins87

upper lip has a slight frown woooot

Not to mention a wet diaper.....

Im gonna experiment on a straight blade not one of my good ones but Ive got a few ebay razors that im using for restoration work/ practice and they are very straight with square points, a slight smile would keep me from cuts from that point, actually ive been slightly easing up on the point or rolling those abit allready to protect my self from them do I need a sharp square point ?. some of my better razors like a Fily already have a slight smile and it a minty 6/8. but as a rule I use the stroke that fits the razor's style, grind or past damage disclosure I have very limited hone experience. Ill put this to a test, a purely subjective one

If the smile is uniform with the spine then then a rolling stroke down the middle of the hone works. All portions of the edge get the same time on the hone with each rolling stroke unlike a straight edge when x-stroked.

Also, a warped blade might be less problematic if it has a natural smile (a masking effect). I think this may be important in the historical evolution of straights.

Ditto for a hone that is not perfectly flat. With a rolling stroke only a small portion of the blade touches the stone so it may matter less that the stone is flat or not.

Intentionally creating a smile to me is not a good idea. Why grind down a perfectly good blade unless to hone out a chip? With that said, I have a few outstanding shavers that came with a smile. A bit of concentration in honing is needed to ensure that I keep the bevel even but the shave is well worth it. I find that when using a fairly distinct smile I maneuver the blade differently around my face and can use the tip with almost surgical precision in certain tight spots. A good smile seems to help me make much more use out of all of the edge and to be much more precise with certain parts of the edge.

In sum I'd have to say I'll never intentionally take an even and level edge and hone it to a smile. But if I buy a blade that has a good smile I get more maneuverability from the blade.

Originally Posted by matt321

If the smile is uniform with the spine then then a rolling stroke down the middle of the hone works. All portions of the edge get the same time on the hone with each rolling stroke unlike a straight edge when x-stroked.

This benefit can be emulated by using a 1" wide hone and repeating each stroke 3x on the blade. But most won't do it because irregardless of skill A human will never exert force as consistent as gravity. I can't imagine that a smiling blade will ever be able to achieve the consistently sharp edge a straight blade can. It can get sharp enough, but I don't see the benefits of the smile outweighing the ability to attain the maximum potential keen on an edge. I'm going to work on honing a smile just so that I don't have to grind them out of razors I buy used, but like AirColorado, I doubt I'll ever find it worthwhile to work one into a razor.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

but some are a little iffy

Man! Is this a close up of AirColorado? Thought he looked familiar.

'Those ain't bags under my eyes, kid. That's luggage.'