Thread: Definitions..Wedge, 1/4, 1/2 full hollow

Nenad's post #23 fits the description. Forget all the steps all the way up to the real skinny stuff. They all exist, but it's just too much redundant info.

The benefit of a wedge is strength, and the weight if you want it. The drawback is that they cannot be honed forever and the cutting angle needs to change accordingly as it wears. The other percieved drawback way back when... was the weight, the very thing we like again. As time went on, the steel got a little better the master grinds more hollow to make things lighter and no one looked back.

I doubt that wearing a wedge out would ever happen to you because these days we have more than one razor to play with. Back in the day I think most guys only wanted to buy one razor in a lifetime and often it was the only one being used. I think they were also handed down a lot.

Some of the steels in the old wedges are awesome! JL's has got to be one of the best examples of a wedge I have ever put on a strop. I almost put it in my own stable of razors.

I think if you sent JL's wife an email, she'd sell it to you while he's away... Offer, like $250 and she might send some of his other shaving stuff that is cluttering the closet by now as well.... baaa ha ha ha

Now that is just pure evil. Shame on you for even suggesting such a thing!

--
Alf

PS. Do you happen to have her email address?

Originally Posted by randydance062449

The framebacks have what is called a "Flat Grind" i.e. no concave. On a couple of mine that I looked at last night they were ground into a triangular shape (flat wedge). I suspect that some were also of a uniform, very thin, thickness.

I've got a W&B unitary frameback that has the blade portion ground as a thin wedge - the cross section looks kind of like the logo for the Tennessee Titans (aka the Flaming Thumbtacks). I've also got an old composition frameback that uses a thin flat blade mounted into a separate spine piece, almost like an oversized injector blade with a c-section spine swaged onto it.

I know Josh hasn't been keepin' up with this thread...

He'd be jumping on this like a Federation Wrestler...

Originally Posted by urleebird

I know Josh hasn't been keepin' up with this thread...

He'd be jumping on this like a Federation Wrestler...

LOL my wife is off limits....well not her...but access to my razors is!!!!

She just got a HUGE raise and a new job offered yesterday, so she has gotten off my back about my razors...besides..while she isnt afraid of my razors and doesnt understand the obsession...I have made the gun obsession quite clear...I think my razors are safe.

Besides Bill, she actually REALLY likes the one you made she was looking at it for a while...it was the one I bought a few days afterwords she was mad about lol, just out of sheer principle

Originally Posted by xman

Now IMHO I would say that ...

I through III would be Wedges
IV through V would be 1/4 Hollow
VI through VII or IX would be 1/2 Hollow
X through XII would be Full Hollow
and the last two would be Double Hollow

Is that about what most people here think?

X

I kind of think that only the "I" is a wedge. The reasoning there is only because of the normal shape of a wedge. V

Glen

Originally Posted by Joe Chandler

Generally speaking, I refer to any of the razors with 1/4 hollow or less as a wedge, and most people I've dealt with haven't had a problem with that definition. I myself, despite handling hundreds of razors, have never seen one that was flat from spine to edge. They all have some concave in them. The entire face of the blade would make contact with the hone if that were the case. The only example I've seen of this type grind is on a chisel. If I ever saw one completely flat from spine to edge, I'd be inspired to make my own, since I can flat grind.

The really old (authentic) wedges are triangualr with no concave surface. The bevel is the entire side of the blade. That's why they're so hard to hone.

Originally Posted by gglockner

I kind of think that only the "I" is a wedge. The reasoning there is only because of the normal shape of a wedge. V

Glen

This has to be right by the normal definition of wedge, but some of the other shapes have come to be called a wedge.

My opinion is that the 1/4 should not be considered a wedge because it has a thin front portion. The shape with the single large diameter curve from soine to edge could be considered a wedge because it closely approximates one, but that's as far as we should be willing to go. The rest are misnomers. Anything that doesn't have a continuous curve or flat surface from spine to edge couldn't be called a wedge without corrupting the meaning of the word. How can you reasonaably go beyond that?

Well, some splitting wedges for logs had slightly ground sides, that didn't seem to make them less of a wedge.

I've got a razor that has a blade that is a very thin wedge honed from a 1/16th piece of steel with a flat grid, and has a separate brass spine piece swedged on to set the honing angle. The blade has perfectly straight sides, is it a wedge even though only the sharp bit is touched by the hone?

What about the old english razors that look kind of like a wedge with a shallow fuller on each side like a saber? There's definitely a hollow, though it only extends halfway down each side. Are those wedges?

Originally Posted by mparker762

Well, some splitting wedges for logs had slightly ground sides, that didn't seem to make them less of a wedge.

I've got a razor that has a blade that is a very thin wedge honed from a 1/16th piece of steel with a flat grid, and has a separate brass spine piece swedged on to set the honing angle. The blade has perfectly straight sides, is it a wedge even though only the sharp bit is touched by the hone?

What about the old english razors that look kind of like a wedge with a shallow fuller on each side like a saber? There's definitely a hollow, though it only extends halfway down each side. Are those wedges?

I'm willing to stretch it for blades with a slight, single curve.

The one you described sounds like a wedge with a frameback.