Thread: Humbled by a W&B Wedge

Every once in a while in the height of our hubris, the Almighty seems to come along and pimp slap us into humility. Fresh off my HHT triumph on Friday, I was dealt such a pimp slap this evening. The razor in question was a 5/8 Wade and Butcher wedge. This one was more wedge than I had ever encountered. The head on view looks like an isocoles triangle. And good grief what a complete PITA to get sharp. Per instructions on this very site, I double taped the spine and had at it. After a good couple hours I finally got it to pass the AHT (arm hair test) but I suspect I've probably got a lot of work to do before it's ready for a test shave. Maybe start the pyramid at 15 tomorrow and give it a test drive sometime next week. I'm kinda bent on test driving my other 3 razors this week as yesterday's shave (with the Fred Reynolds chopper) and today's shave (with the Imperial Extra Hollow Ground) were absolutely epic. I'm hoping someone will confirm that this difficulty with honing is the nature of the wedge beast although, given my limited honing experience it may just be me.

I've had some rough nights with W&B, Wostenholm and other Sheffield wedges in the 5 and 6/8 size. Depends on the razor but some of them are tough steel to get that bevel on IME. Keep on keepin' on but don't go finer until the bevel is sure enough set. Just IMHO, anyway.

As above & don't be tempted to speed things up with extra pressure.
Wedges can indeed be a challenge but microchips are a bigger PITA than a razors grind profile. Let the stones do the work

On a solid wedge I will start out with 4 layers of tape, if I dont do this the bevel starts to crawl from the edge and work its way to the spine, which means I am removing far more metal than necessary and more work as well. Sham taught me this trick and it works quite well.

I feel your pain, all of you

It took me (off and on) about a year to get that Bell Belfast wedge shave ready. I would work a few hours and put it aside, come bace a few days later and burn out on it and put it away. Get it out a month later and do a few more hours... and so on... It has, by far, been my hardest won victories in honing, I still can't hone a stainless razor to save my life...

I got a W&B wedge from the classifieds here and I started out with three layers of tape on the spine on the 1k stone and then moved down to one layer once I'd got the blade shaving arm hair with three layers.

I also spent a good amount of time on the 1k with one layer of tape just to make sure I had the bevel well and truly set, and only then did I move onto a higher grit.

Jimmy's advice is really the best way to go here. Dont move any higher on the stones until you've got a good bevel set and you can shave arm hair.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Sounds like the way to go is more layers of tape and more time on the coarser stones. I finally did get it to shave arm hair last night but it ain't pretty. Maybe some more work on the bevel is in order and mowing arm hair with impunity. Once I've got the bevel down pat THEN I'll start the pyrimad. I think the problem was that basically I was using the same tactics I would on a hollow ground (had I done what I did last night to my Boker Red Injun, you could look at it and have whiskers fall off.)

You should be able to get arm hair shaved during the first bevel step. If not, I would not move up on the stones.


Nun2sharp, do you remove tape after the bevel stage? You mentioned you "start" with four layers insinuating that you remove layers.

I would think if you started with four or three or two you'd have to go on with that amount throughout the honing ..... but I could be wrong. I was wrong once before.

IME hehehe
I hate wedges

But the best plan of attack is the heel forward 45+ degrees to even up the actual bevel...
Most of the real problems come from the old bevels, not the razor, it took a few hundred of them, and hours of work on each for me to learn this...
You can hone around these multiple bevels BTW but, the edge will NOT hold very long... the extreme heel forward stroke will even out the whole edge then life gets really easy...
Honest try it, you can usually feel the bumpity bump of the old bevels as you come across the stone...

I still start with the circles first...and normally use 1 layer of tape only, on real wedges, or worn concaves I might use two...