Thread: Razors with a smile.

I purchased a W&B from a member here(very happy with and best hone so far) and it has a smile.
My question is multi part.

1. What us the reason for this type of blade?
2. Are they honed the same as a straight edged razor?
3. Who else made them?

Thank Ray T

Originally Posted by wmrayt

I purchased a W&B from a member here(very happy with and best hone so far) and it has a smile.
My question is multi part.

1. What us the reason for this type of blade?
2. Are they honed the same as a straight edged razor?
3. Who else made them?

Thank Ray T

1. I have no idea what the original reason was when the first razor maker ended up with a smile (although when forging a single-edged cutting tool, the natural tendency is for a smiling profile as that side of the material is stretched and drawn out in the process of thinning it), or indeed if it first arose from wonky honing. But the reason many (myself included) like smiling blades is that they have a different feel from razors with perfectly straight edges, and some of us just like them.

2. A rolling X-stroke is your friend. As the smile is more pronounced, so too will the honing technique change become more pronounced.

3. I suppose "lots of makers" isn't a very satisfactory answer, but lots of makers did - and do.

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

I'm going to show my ignorance again. When you say rolling X. Is the blade flat through the stroke or like the tip of a knife needing to be raised at the tip and heal?

Originally Posted by wmrayt

I'm going to show my ignorance again. When you say rolling X. Is the blade flat through the stroke or like the tip of a knife needing to be raised at the tip and heal?

If the blade is held at any fixed angle relative to the stone it will only contact the edge and the spine in one spot. The edge and the spine of a smiling razor lie on a conical section. The conical section is flat enough that it is hard to recognize it as such, but it is. In order to contact all of the conical section it has to be rolled.

Take a dinner plate and lift one side until a spot near the outer diameter touches the table. It will only be touching the table in two spots one near the outer edge and one on the ring on the bottom of the plate. Do you see how you have to roll the plate to get other spots to contact the table? A smiling blade is the same but on a small enough scale that the roll is very subtle.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

If the blade is held at any fixed angle relative to the stone it will only contact the edge and the spine in one spot. The edge and the spine of a smiling razor lie on a conical section. The conical section is flat enough that it is hard to recognize it as such, but it is. In order to contact all of the conical section it has to be rolled.

Take a dinner plate and lift one side until a spot near the outer diameter touches the table. It will only be touching the table in two spots one near the outer edge and one on the ring on the bottom of the plate. Do you see how you have to roll the plate to get other spots to contact the table? A smiling blade is the same but on a small enough scale that the roll is very subtle.

One of the best explanations I've read!

I've never understood the 'X' as it's more of a 'C' as you have described very well. :