Thread: What is so bad about a frown?

Sorry if the answer is obvious, but it just struck me that I've seen lots of people referring to 'honing out a frown' or even breadknifing the blade to get rid of one, but I don't know why they are so undesirable. If the wear to spine and edge is such that the whole edge still contacts the hone and gets sharpened, what's the issue?

I know that some blades are designed to have a smile and that there are techniques to put a smile on a straight blade, just wondering why not the opposite?

Try shaving with one. The blade is not honed properly and the edge in the center will not be sharp. I could sharpen the center of the frown but this will still not make the blade viable for shaving. It would be too awkward to use.

Forgive me for saying it but ..... smile and the world smiles with you .... A smile lends itself to more easily making contact with the whiskers, while leaving the skin below unscathed. A frown is more likely to cause nicks at the point or heel because it does not lend itself to more easily making contact with the whiskers without also coming too close to the underlying skin for comfort. I would also say, from razors I've dealt with that had frowns, that you'll not get a proper edge from point to heel with a frowning blade. Just IMHO.

In a nutshell

It has nothing to do with shaving, but with honing.

Originally Posted by Matt69

but I don't know why they are so undesirable. If the wear to spine and edge is such that the whole edge still contacts the hone and gets sharpened, what's the issue?

Due to basic geometry this is not possible. Honing frowning edge is only possible with a convex hone (or using only the edge of the hone which is convex), plus extremely complicated strokes making it completely worthless exercise.
On the other hand a smile can be honed with any number of strokes on a flat hone.

As far as Lesslemming's pictures above - they're sort of showing an issue, though it's the exact same issue you're having trying to shave a concave part of your face with a straight edge (or with a smiley one but with a smaller curvature than that on the face). In other words, not something that is unusual.
The difference between honing and shaving is that the hone is actually flat and hard, while your face is mostly convex and flexible, and so you can stretch your skin/move it around to get around that geometric problem.

For real good illustrations/instructions on avoiding frowns and attaining a smiling edge, read this PDF file here. It is an excerpt on honing and stropping from a 1961 barber manual in the SRP library help files. Formerly known as the SRP Wiki. I've pretty much adapted the method of honing described in the text as my routine.

Hello there everyone,

I am new to straight razor shaving and as Matt69 I also had no idea why the frowning edge was so undesirable and not recommendable. I understand it now thanks to Lesslemming. However, there's still one thing I don't get. Since the frowning edge are not good for shaving, why on earth were they ever made? Can anyone please give me answer to this questions?

Thank you in advance.

They werent factory made, they were poorly honed that way.

thank you for such a quick response. So it was not a deliberate way of making them? I had no idea...

Isn't there both a smile and a frown present somewhere on most "swoosh" razors? Wouldn't one have to hone the frown part of the edge, too?