Thread: Wedge razor advantages and disavantages of size?

Originally Posted by Blank

Personally I'd hone it by using a piece of tape on the spine to give it a tiny bit of lift, like some people on here recommend to avoid spine wear. An alternative would be to just go with a zero grind blade, although that would indeed take a long time to hone and be very inefficient.

If one layer of tape gives approx 1º lift . How will that create the required 16º (approx) to form the edge ?
I remember a guy came on here with a razor he made that needed 10 layers of tape to hone it. Really not a razor IMO.

But still, fair point on the honing, although from the wording of your post I thought you were just asking about the grinding itself and not the honing process too.

What I was saying is, when it comes to straights, you won't make a better mousetrap than they did for the last few centuries.

Originally Posted by Blank

I don't know about the specifics of manufacturing straight razors, but is there a reason a wedge couldn't be ground on something like a 2x72" belt grinder (e.g. a KMG), like knife makers typically use these days when making flat ground blades?
......

Old wedges were hammered/forged.
Hammering steel into a thin edge is just darn difficult.
Finish grinding would have been done on the same large grind stones the knife folk used.
All would have a slight hollow. Honing a big thick flat blade would just be
tedious and involve a lot of steel removal by fine hones.
As a result hollowing a little or a lot was common
Better steel was often folded into a hammered spine as holder.

Modern belt sanders do allow you to try anything.
Some allow wheels of different radius.

Go for it...

Originally Posted by jmercer

I found a DD Satin Wedge in fairly good shape and am in the process of cleaning up first. Can't wait to try it. I can see the big difference in edge flex comparing it to a DD Dwarf. The Boker has less edge flex than this Satin Wedge.

What degree of wedge here, quarter or near?

Attachment 219449

Attachment 219450

All this time and I just discovered the SRP database.

Says near wedge.

Dubl Duck "Satinwedge" 11/16 - Straight Razor Place Library

I received my DD Satinwedges back from honing this morning and shaved as soon as unpacked. Har! What a sweet shave. I'm liking the stiffer edge. They have a nice weight too them. The Boker 387 I have is heavy in the hand and on the face compared to the DD SW. The fancy one is a bit heavier with bade being 1/4" longer but the fancy scales balance out nicely. Took both apart and cleaned up a little and the plain one I had to replace scales. My first scale make/replace. Lexan takes a lot of sanding by hand. Har!! I was able to duplicate the micro blasted finish on tang of the plain one. This one has a nice secure feeling in wet/soapy/clumsy fingers.

A third wedge for the herd. I'm sold on them for all the reason mentioned above, so far. We know how that can go right.

Today's latest and greatest my first shot at a NOS.

NOS Puma 1938 5/8 wedge. Three saves now and what a dream shave for me. Kinda like the slight smile in the spine and edge, another first for me.












Backside





Everything has a learning curve right. Har!

I coated razor with Ballistol and the gold leaf started coming off on wiping with micro cloth. Aarrgh! Oh well! I bought it to use so comes with the territory.

Gonna haft to make a light box to colors constant.

..

Don't tell anybody but.... I have a few old Sheffield wedges. While I will stand on a soap box all day and yell the DD wedge will out shave them all , the truth is they all work well for me :<0) The big guys will only need wiping when I change to the other side of my face. The smile gives you that slicing motion automatically which works really well on my chin. Wide or not so wide you can put more pressure on your strop when doing that without a big problem. In fact if your strop hangs, you want to let more slack in it to get to the edge better. They are quiet which throws me off the first few strokes on the face but I quickly get used to it. The 4/8 and 5/8 I have are just as nice but lighter is all.
The 7/8 and 8/8 do take some getting used to. Hard to see around until you get the skill down a little. Heck you don't need to see your ear right? Unless your picking it up off the floor :<0)

The quietness is one of the things I'm starting to like. The pinging and tinking of lighter weight blades kinda give me the creeps sometimes to be honest. The better the pre-shave prep the quieter the shave. I'm getting where I like that. No tug/bounce on the heavy chin hair. Lighter blades seem to bounce or the tug, even directly from being professionally honed, makes me stop my stroke.

I'm learning and every shave gets better. Thanks...

Originally Posted by jmercer

The quietness is one of the things I'm starting to like. The pinging and tinking of lighter weight blades kinda give me the creeps sometimes to be honest. The better the pre-shave prep the quieter the shave. I'm getting where I like that. No tug/bounce on the heavy chin hair. Lighter blades seem to bounce or the tug, even directly from being professionally honed, makes me stop my stroke.

I'm learning and every shave gets better. Thanks...

Beautiful Puma, great buy...and I applied some Tuf-Glide to my Dovo Bismarck, gave it wipe, and looked at the tissue that now held a small portion of the goldwash from the tang...live and learn.

And Pups, you know I'm not a big fan of the Ducks, but that little DD Satin Wedge I had was a superb shaver, absolutely fantastic. Only reason I didn't mind selling that one is I have a W&B, post 1891, that could be a duplicate wedge of that DD Satin Wedge, those little wedges are awesome...think they were both 4/8 maybe 5/8??

I don't shave under my nose but those little guys can't be beat there.
Mr Mercer you have some fine blades I am sure you will enjoy. Your comments fall in line with everything I know or have heard about them and your posts will enlighten others :<0)

Not to mention I hope they bring the price of Ducks down

TY

The Puma's rubber collar makes it a dream to strop. Being heavy handed and becoming a bit klutzy with arthritic hands I can easily control blade and turn it smoothly in my fingers while not twisting my wrist. Better blade to strop alignment control has greatly improved with this razor.

The smaller Satin Wedge is what got me started in this direction. I'm finding the 5/8 is most suitable for me so the bigger 6/8 ones I have I'm using less and less. Even more so now with my three wedge rotation. Wink! wink!!

I drools on sight of WB FBU by the way.