I'm afraid that's an incorrect conclusion. The spine gets thicker with the bigger blades because it's necessary to maintain edge geometry. It doesn't take 1/2" of steel spine to support a paper-thin razor blade, Joe. Machetes take a lot more of a beating than razors, but only need a spine of approximately 1/8" to "support" the work that blade does. The spine width has been built into razors specifically to precisely maintain the edge geometry, not for looks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
Framebacks, for example, have very thin blades all the way through and the geometry was maintained by setting a built-in blade guide for honing; the frame back.
The earliest razors had to be honed without a honing guide and were built pretty much like knives. Then came the wedge grinds. Then the frameback design, then the hollow grind. From the wedge to the present extra-extra-hollow ground razors, the spine's width was always calculated to give the razor the best edge geometry for it's design when laid flat on the hone.
I simply can't go along with the notion that the spine gives us a proper angle by pure coincidence just because a big, thick spine was needed to support a thin, fine blade that was meant only to push cut hair while big bowie knives designed to hack on trees, firewood and to be used in battle require less spine than that.