Thread: The Real Wedge

As said above, the rattler type of grind, which was once very popular, was done with the wheel on its side. The thinness of the blade meant that the shaving angle would be all wrong, so the spine was left at its original thickness to keep the right angle. Looking at the blade tip-on, it resembles a 'T' - no matter how wide the wheel, you couldn't use it in its usual orientation and still leave the thicker metal all along the spine, so it is a combination of grinds and is not referred to or thought of a true wedge.

The blades of some framebacks were ground in a similar way - some, particularly the french ones, make little effort to remove the grinding lines which run in the same orientation as the spine, often giving the blade a kind of tree bark-like effect - something you see in late, casually made examples of Filarmonicas when the company was winding down (I mean the coarse grinding marks, not any tendency to wedginess).

You find this very thin wedge shaped blade on most of the framebacks and faux framebacks, whether they use a tube to go over the blade to give a thicker spine to get the right honing angle or if the thicker spine casing grips the blade, both in replaceable blade and fixed blade models.

One other example was made by the famous firm Tuckmar and was called the 'Tuckmar T' because it was made in the rattler style - a comparatively modern rattler, that is!

None of the above can be considered as true wedges because there is not enough 'meat' in the blade to give the right honing angle, so other artifices must be resorted to such as combination grinding, sleeves and frames, so even though the blade is really a true wedge it does not count as such.

There is a halfway-house that most of us have come across - the microtome razor. This is a true wedge on one side and a shallow hollow grind on the other. Again, it does not count as a true wedge.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by BobH

I am wondering if the supposed true wedges out there are the result of heavy hone wear to the spine over decades of honing and not an intentional result of grinding on a wheel at the factory. You would think using a grinding wheel would impart even a tiny amount of concavity to a blade during manufacture.

Bob

But what if you had grinding wheels with an infinite radius?

Originally Posted by ocelot27

But what if you had grinding wheels with an infinite radius?

Unless your grinding wheel is a bowling ball, it already possesses an infinite radius face. It it just to the left or right of where you are used to grinding.

Originally Posted by ocelot27

But what if you had grinding wheels with an infinite radius?

Wish I had of thought of that.

Bob

Originally Posted by ocelot27

But what if you had grinding wheels with an infinite radius?

They are terribly popular in Ultima Thule so I'm told.

The woeful inhabitants of that strange and terrible place shave with razors made by Ockham, formed from curiously curved strips of metal fashioned by Moebius.

They are instructed in the art by a master of metaphysics, a process which takes seven years but which seemingly passes in an instant, for they are all one year younger after taking the course.

Their faces are curious and horrible to behold, the features being unclear and ill-defined, like a vaguely threatening amorphous mass.

That my friends is the real story of the use of impossibly curved razors sharpened with grindstones that are really straight lines.

Regards,
Neil

JoeD has a razor than is convexly ground. I remember him telling me about honing that thing...

I had a razor that was quite near a wedge and had lots of hone wear, and the result was that the front third of it was a true wedge, which lessened toward the middle and heel. I did not enjoy honing that razor (I don't like tape, as a general rule).

Never seen a true wedge, though.

Full hollows don't exist either. A full hollow would be a razor ground to the point where the blade ceases to exist. If there is steel left, by definition, it is not yet a full hollow. A true full hollow ground razor would produce a really smooth shave. It just wouldn't have much effect on the whiskers.

Every blade that is honed has a point where the blade ceases to exist and just at the point where something changes to nothing the work is done. You might even call it the cutting edge for lack of a better word. All strive for it and most fall short with only a lucky and blessed few attaining hone meister status. That is the real wedge that separates the Ewoks from the Jedi. I think I need more coffee.

Bob

I had a really really old razor (late 1700s or early 1800s) with convex profile. I am pretty sure it was abused to that state.
You can hone those or 'true wedge) freehand like a knife, or make a shim along the spine, but why?
I've always considered the 'true wedge' a cartoon, rather than a type of razor. At the end of the day a razor is a tool and there is absolutely no reason to not be hollowed, even the smallest of hollow makes honing exponentially easier.

Originally Posted by ace

Full hollows don't exist either. A full hollow would be a razor ground to the point where the blade ceases to exist. If there is steel left, by definition, it is not yet a full hollow. A true full hollow ground razor would produce a really smooth shave. It just wouldn't have much effect on the whiskers.

Unlike 'true wedge', 'full hollow' has another interpretation that is very meaningful - the maximum hollowing you can achieve by grinding with a single wheel. When the two sides of the blade meet at a line you have achieved it.
Of course by that definition, a razor ground on 30" wheel could still be full hollow.

The problem is that there is not quantitative scale for hollowing. In practice it doesn't matter much, there are 3-4 fairly distinctive feedbacks from the razor when shaving - a wedge, half hollow, full hollow and extra full hollow (and half hollow and full hollow are more similar). The transition between them may be a bit blurry but nevertheless the distinction is significant.

Yes, there is the henckels scale with 16 or so levels of hollowing, but as far as shaving is concerned that level of fine-grain is meaningless, at least to me.