Thread: Razors with a smile.

I think the reason for a smiling razor was for possibly two reasons beside when forging.
1. It creates a scything type cut to the whiskers.

2. Allows for easier access to the hollows and irregularities on the neck.
No facts, just an observation thru my many years of str8t shaving. That and I enjoy honing them, best.

The way I see it:

1. You face isn't flat.

2. A curved blade has a longer cutting edge than a straight blade of the same length.

3. A smiling blade requires a little different honing technique.

4. Most straight razor manufacturers had and or have smiling blades in their product line.

As others have said, it's a result of forging.

The machine-made razors of the late 1800's and onward are made using stock removal. IE, a strip of steel has all the parts that aren't a razor ground off it.

Earlier razors, made with forging, also underwent grinding, but more of the basic shape was created while the strip of steel (called a string in Sheffield) was red hot.

It's very much like rolling dough with a rolling pin. As you thin it out it gets wider. No material is removed, so to make it thinner that material has to go somewhere. The same thing happens with steel.

And like others have said, razors with a smiling edge are the norm for razors made before 1880 or so. Some, obviously, more than others.

I don't know this for sure, but I have always thought that the straight edge razors became the norm when the manufacturers started using the double wheel grinders, as a straight edge is so much easier to mass produce using these machines. Until that time I believe that smiles were the norm as it is a much more natural shape to forge and shave with. IMO it is also a superior form from a honing perspective.

A straight edge is as close to a frown as you can get.

Maybe the razors were just happier way back when as evidenced by their smiles. However the smiling razors came about I do enjoy shaving with them and honing them.

Bob