Thread: Blade width, sharpness

Hello all,

I am new to the forums and straight razors; thanks for a great site with tons of useful information! Thanks to you I have sucessfully avoided the $7.99 Pakistani eBay razors. I now have a few vintage razors that seem to do the job. I had a couple questions about blade width...

1) If a used razor for sale is advertised as 5/8 does this indicated that it is currently 5/8" wide, or when it was new it was 5/8"; or you can't count on one vs. the other (inconsistent)?

2) If a razor starts out as a 5/8 and is now 4/8, it would seem (at least on a hollow ground blade) that it would not be as sharp, or as easy to sharpen as when it was full width? At what point is that razor not considered useful?

Thanks again!

Welcome to SRP. AFAIC if the razor is listed as 5/8 that is what it should measure. Be aware that some companies measured their razor from the top of the spine to the bottom of the cutting edge while others from the bottom of the honing flat (the point where the curve of the hollow begins immediately under the spine). So in that case a 5/8 might measure close to 6/8 overall.

As far as honewear. Less is better than more but I'm not sure when wear would get to a point in the blade where the temper would be different enough to compromise the quality of the edge. TBH a 5/8 honed down to 4/8 would be a razor with significant wear. That would take a heck of a lot of years or a very heavy hand IMHO.

OTOH, I have honed that much out of a razor with a large chip and it shaved well when I got down to the desired blade profile. Mike Blue ought to be able to answer that since he is an expert in metallurgy.

Welcome to SRP

Originally Posted by Lynam

1) If a used razor for sale is advertised as 5/8 does this indicated that it is currently 5/8" wide, or when it was new it was 5/8"; or you can't count on one vs. the other (inconsistent)?

There is no set standard in advertising, everybody does it as they see fit. If I buy a razor that's more than 1/32" narrower than the advertised width, usually I'm going to return it. If it's over I'll probably let it go and if it turns out to be too wide for my taste I can resell it.

Originally Posted by Lynam

2) If a razor starts out as a 5/8 and is now 4/8

I would skip on such razor and the ones I've gotten in my possession through bundles have ended up in the trash. But I've seen people sell such things, and others buy them so some of them are probably useful. I just think they are not worth the trouble, as there are more than enough better options (and I'd happily spend the extra $1-$5 for one of those options instead).