Thread: Smile no Smile

When looking at razors on e-bay, classifieds ect. it seems that most blades have a bit of a smile. Im a noob and was wondering if any razor is supost to have a flat edge. When I see some razors like the round tip type they seem to have a straight edge at least pics of the new ones. Are razors with a flat edge harder to shave with. I do have a razor with a flat edge and a round tip but have not shaved with it yet.

Some are supposed to have a flat edge, and only have a smile because decades of honing changed their shape, but there are a lot of older razors that had smiles to begin with.

I'm got a great big Frederick Reynolds wedge that was a huge smile and was ground that way from the start.

As far as straight or smile being easier to shave with, that really depends on your face. Personally, I generally like them straight or close to it.

Of course, you see plenty of old blades with a big frown. AFAIK, a frown is always the result of bad honing, and is generally not a good thing.

Smile and the world smiles with you. According to the 1961 barber manual excerpt PDF on honing and stropping in the SRP Wiki seen here a slight smile is a good thing in a razor's edge. IME straight blades or smiling blades are fine to shave with. A frown is to be avoided. I like a smiling blade myself. Here is an extreme example and one of my favorites.

Wow thats a smile and a beautiful razor. I hope to have some nice razors as I build my colection. Thanks for the pic and it seems that the edge should follow the spine on razors is that correct

Originally Posted by rgc58

Wow thats a smile and a beautiful razor. I hope to have some nice razors as I build my colection. Thanks for the pic and it seems that the edge should follow the spine on razors is that correct

It is sometimes if the maker designed a smiling blade. More often you'll find a smile honed into a straight blade as shown in the illustration in the barber manual PDF I linked in my previous post.

Thats a great link and really helped me to see what you mean. Boy do I have alot to learn but that is part of the fun of it. Thank you again
Glenn

Smile and the world smiles with you.

Good words.
Nice smile on old blade.

Here's another smiling blade. The smile was there when I picked iy up but the blade was covered in rust.

As mentioned above, some smiles were put there from the 'factory', some the result of honing and some, the result of honing a blade with a faulty grind where the thickness of the blade might be thinner at the toe and/or heal. Frowns are a bad shave but smiles, well if it were bad it wouldn't be called a smile. I have no preference to smiling or strait bevel.

I have a couple of both types. I find the smiling blades slightly easier to do detail work with, because it is easier for me to get around a goatee/sideburn. by that I mean that I can use only a small part of the blade while keeping the rest off my skin because of the smile. Now I say slightly and I mean it. After becoming proficient at shaving I can now do this with all my razors. My advice would be to try and pick up a cheap smiler after you get your shaving technique down and try it out.

I will try and do that and by a cheap smiler, is that an ebay razor. Ive been looking on ebay and am getting the nerve to start buying some and hope to get a good razor but not the 2 or 3 hundred dollar good just yet.