Thread: Terminology 6/8's?

Why is a razor called a 6/8 instead of a 3/4th?

b/c the blades are sized by 1/8's so 6/8 or 3/4 8/8 1 inch, 5/8, 7/8, 4/8 or 1/2 inch, basically the majority of blades you will see increase in size by 1/8" the larger they get. Not sure why that is, just the norm that i have encountered.

They should have avoided all the confusion and just gone with metric.

Bob

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty sure it was just the standard way of classifying blade sizes. Other than that we get into the 16ths if we really narrow it down. Standard blade size is about 5/8ths.

Just to muddy the waters but it seems that it may have been common to measure in 8ths. If you run across an old, i.e. steam power era, lumber mill the adjustment levers are delineated in 8ths. As in four clicks and the next board cut will be 4/8ths and so on. Learned this from the Woodwright's shop this may be the right episode, Steam Power Sawmill, but I don't have time to check.

Jonathan

most standard measurement methods are multiples of 4 and eight. Like most tools and drill bits, saw blades: 1/4, 1/16, 7/64, 3/32, 11/16, and such. Note the denominators in each of the sizes; there are exceptions of course, but these are some of the most common you'll run across. I know, but since the measurements got brought up this has kind of had me pondering a bit... With some of the 9/16, 11/16, and 13/16; I've seen these on a lot of vintage razors that have been used obviously ( I know some of the custom makers make them these sizes purposefully, but bear w/ me here) I wonder if these were all 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, and 8/8 that were just used and honed until they were around these sizes? I figure most people in the eras where the straights were the only, or preferred choice of shaving didn't have vast collections, and more than likely had one or two daily shavers causing the increased honing...just a thought, looking at some razors on my bench, and it got me wondering.

There are 1/16 measured razors and Metric measure marks to... I have seen some 4/8's marked 1/2 also, I doubt there was a "Rule" just what was thought to appeal to the customer...

Note that the prices are marked on the razors in whole numbers too you will see $1, $1.50 $2 etc etc if they were marked today we would see $1.99 or at Walmart $1.88 it is advertising perception IMHO

Also if you actually measure the NOS razors you will find a variance in the actual sizes too, and where the "size" was measured from