Thread: Preferred Blade Width/Grind and Why?

i like a 5/8"-6/8", full hollow, round point. luckily for me, those are pretty common dimensions

6/8 and up, holds more lather, in either spike or Irish point for trimming around the 'stach.
Prefer a hollow ground for audible feedback but a Sheffield chopper for post vacation mowings.
Prefer jimps and thumb notches as well. Skinny scales that flow from the tang union well and have a good balance.

I like 5/8 full hollow. Prefer it to be vintage as well. With spike point also for trimming my beard or mustache. That being said I also enjoy my big blades and wedges. But I don't grab those as often.

Current market demand is for bigger blades, but by far the most common razor width among vintage blades is 5/8. That means they work! Once the technology was developed to be able to make them, full hollow was the most common grind.

In engineering speak, it's a tradeoff between manufacturing costs and maneuverability (which both favour smaller blades) and heft and size of the blade (which favours larger blades that better mow down stubble on the flatter parts of the face and more easily carry away stubble and lather).

Hence, I believe there is a valid reason that 5/8 blades became so popular, even if the current fashion trends towards much larger blades, and for myself I found that 6/8 seems to give me the best compromise and that the more I move away from this size the less I care for a razor.
In fact, I recently found that I had somewhat neglected my 5/8 razors, and when I came back to them I quickly started to appreciate how well this size works.

Most of my razors are full hollow, and here I believe the choice was largely driven by the ability of manufacturers to economically produce such a grind and once it became available most shavers quickly turned to it, even if the occasional shave with a ½ hollow makes for an interesting change of routine.


B.

I shave with an eclectic group of razors, both in size and shapes. They all shave well. But my eyes light up when I get to the larger (7/8)and up wedge or near wedge style razors. A well sharpened 8/8 wedge is hard to beat for the comfort and shave, but can be e bit more demanding around the nose and chin. The lancet edge style razors are great shavers and when I use one, I always wonder why they are not more popular. For me them seem to have the best of the hollow ground and wedge razors.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Current market demand is for bigger blades, but by far the most common razor width among vintage blades is 5/8. That means they work! Once the technology was developed to be able to make them, full hollow was the most common grind.

When I was very young, long time ago, all I ever recall seeing barbers use were 5/8 and possibly 6/8 full hollow blades. They just plain flat out work and are the most economical to buy which is just about perfect if you are making a living shaving people.

Full hollows are also normally easier to hone the near wedges.

My personal opinion is that the current demand for large sized razors, 8/8 and up, is just human nature at work. The old bigger is better thing or possibly Freud had it right.

Bob

Originally Posted by COMPNOR

Afternoon,

So I'm still in the beginning stages of shaving with a straight razor but I like to think big and what I have to look forward to. Right now I'm just using a 5/8" full hollow and it works, but I know there is more out there and I hope to one day be able to try them all.

So I was curious what everyone's preferred blade width/grind was. And obviously why.

Cheers!

My favorite is 7/8 with a 1/4 grind but I'm cool with a 7/8 or 6/8 full wedge to half grind. I prefer heavier razors given my tough beard it makes easier to cut and use lighter pressure.

I also like full hollow 6/8 razors. The 7/8 full hollow razors I tried had too much blade flex.

I struggle to finely control small light razors.

I tend to really like my shaves with 1/4 hollow 6/8 and 7/8 razors. I like the heavier grind and near noiseless effort of these razors. That being said I don't grab them to shave more often nor do I specifically seek them out for purchase. Anything between 5/8 full hollow to 8/8 near wedge is a better shave to me than my pre straight days. I have a 4/8 set that also shaves very well but does seem too dainty in my hands so is used infrequently.

Like you I started out with a 5/8 full hollow. I liked it well enough until I got a 6/8 half hollow.

I liked the thicker grind and bigger size so I got myself a 7/8 quarter hollow and that is now my current favourite. The reason being I like the extra weight and I am not a huge fan of the scraping sound that you get from more hollow ground razors. Lots of people prefer to have the sound as it acts as another metric for how the shave is going. It's just not for me.

As for the point anything will do as far as the shave goes, but I really like the Spanish point from an aesthetic point of view. It just looks great.

You will get as many answers on here as there are members. It is really subjective. As TC said anything with a decent edge.