Thread: A wider Wapi?

The other day I was honing one of my Wapis and I wondered if they made a 6/8 or 7/8 Wapi? The 5/8 is a great shaver, it would be nice to shave with a wider Wapi. Anyone out there knows if a wider Wapi was ever made? Juan

They were 5/8 and 9/16s. Some have SFK on the tang and those ones according to Steve at the Invisible Edge were of an ever so slightly more wedge grind. I have had both varieties and can confirm this too.

Now I also know Wapi IIs were made which were a hollow ground, or comparatively more hollow, plastic handled variety. I think these were also 5/8, but may have been 11/16 or possibly even 6/8.

I love my Wapi and it never fails to provide a superb shave. Make sure you rescale it though! They are lethal otherwise!

French points are my favourite style. To add another note, virtually all Solingen blades with '42' on the tang are quite similar to Wapis in that they are quarter hollow with a French point. I have encountered a few, and they are usually always 9/16 although I have come across a couple of 7/16s.

Wapis are great for the money, I rescaled mine with a TI white plastic scales and the other with a DOVO pakkawood scales. I used adjustable miniature metric bolt and nut. They are easy to hone and great to shave with. Really daily shavers. Juan.

Originally Posted by Scipio

Now I also know Wapi IIs were made which were a hollow ground, or comparatively more hollow, plastic handled variety. I think these were also 5/8, but may have been 11/16 or possibly even 6/8.

The Wapi IIs were Double Arrows. They were made in China, not Poland, and had no correlation with the Wapis. A few vendors simply started calling them that when they ran out of their Wapi stock.

Sorry I didnt know. Steve at the Invisible edge was at one point selling a hollow variant of a Wapi which was not a Wapi 2. They had pink/tan scales - human skin coloured is the best description!

I'm just a little confused as to why you would rescale them?
aren't the scaled made from stainless steel?
are the edges of the scale sharp and uncomfortable?

Original Vapi(/french one) is wider then 5/8.
i remember i have one and it is somewhere.

The stainless steel scales are too heavy and make the shave unbalance to the blade, a light, 5/8 blade. You need a lighter counterbalance to the blade. The shave favors the scales and not the blade. If you ever shaved with Wapi with a stainless steel scales, you know what I am talking about. That is the only drawback to the Wapi. Juan.

A big plus one to Juan's post. They are a real pain to get off too.

I found a simpler solution than rescaling was to dull the edge, hone the scales, and use the blade as the handle. I welded one of the scales behind the other so that it sort of served as a makeshift spine and also made the total width of the blade much wider

This is not to be confused with the 7/8 Guapi originally manufactured in Mexico in the 1930s

Nah, I'm just being silly now. I don't know much about the history of the razors we refer to as Wapienicas, but I have not seen or heard of any greater blade widths