About the wedge razors

Can some wedge fans tell me a bit about these razors? are they harder to hone? do they shave well? thanks.

there is a different technique to honing them.... best get that technique from someone smarter than me... i can get mine shaving sharp but thats a minor miracle....

and mine shave very very well.... i have 2 wedges... and i love them.... hardly every use any of my other razors anymore....

The thing that determines how long it will take to hone a razor is how much steel needs to come off. If you need to take, say 1/16 off a full hollow and a quarter hollow, there is more steel on the quarter hollow and it will take longer. But if both just need a touchup, the difference is negligible.

I hone all my razors pretty much the same way, and I shave with them all pretty much the same way. Just different feelings.

I used to like to shave with full hollows better but now I prefer the heavier grinds. I still like a FH but have just come to appreciate the feel of the heavier grind more than I used to. As far as honing them, it is like holli4 said.

For honing is comes down to a few different issues... (when I say older wedge I am generalizing most Sheffield pre 1900 heavy grinds)

The Spine Wear, many of the older heavy wedges have spine wear that is a bit off of what you would expect, and require a bit of serious work before they are ready to "hone"...

Smiles, many of the older wedges have a smile which means you have to use a slight different stroke to get them sharp, you have to use the same thing on a smiling hollow grind too..

Imperfections, many of the older wedges have slight imperfections that were either added in by the people before you or were there from the factory and were exacerbated by the people honing before you...

Because of these things the perception is that wedges are harder to hone, that simply is not true, given an NOS heavy wedge style razor it will hone just as fast and easy as a Hollow grind...
If you are going to try a wedge, just to try a wedge grind I would look for either a newer production 1/4 wedge or perhaps a Solingen made post 1920 wedge ie: DD C-MON, Red Imp or something like that.. You can try how they feel without too much of the hassle..

The biggest problem that I have seen with wedge razors is that the spine wear in most cases is more than off. Typically, there is uneven flattening along the spine and bevel and typically the wear pattern is not the same on both sides. These normally take a significant amount of time to hone and various techniques from 45 degree angles, to rolling X to removal of a lot of metal, to which of my hones will work the best, to how creative can you be to get it to shave. The good news is that they normally are nice shavers once you get them there.

Have fun,

Lynn

Wedges are fun to shave with - they are as silent as death compared to hollows, and the extra weight seems to have a comforting feel somehow. I much prefer the fuller grinds from that point of view. A good wedge can feel like velvet.

When in comes to honing them I think everything that needs to be said has been said already. I would add, however, that I tend to use a couple of layers of tape when I hone mine (all of mine have a good geometry, or else I've fixed the geometry. If that is not the case a bit of careful spine work can help).

James.

Sounds great guys thanks. Got to keep an eye out for one.