Thread: Trouble Shaving with the SRP Wedge Razor and Other Wedge Razor

Well here is a update sharp & shiny got in touch with me and he came over to see me and was a great help he gave me a lot of advice plus he showed me how to honne but that is going to take some time to learn but wanted to look at my stropping he says that was ok but wants to check up on my shaving so he is coming over again this friday to sort some more things out. The other things he informed me there are a lot of good dealers on e bay that are good suppliers of honing stones and other bits etc When he came over on sunday he showed me a lovely Damascus Razor made in italy it was for sale but no way could I afford it . but he did give me a load of free bits which I am very grateful for. I spoke to him about the Wedge I had made for me ( Not the SRP razor that is a work of art) This one was made by a guy who used be on here one of his razors was shown on here and in the design in had holes in the blade I think his wnnt under the name on e bay as whittle1077 & he was also on here quite a bit then he went quite when I contacted him he said he does not make razors no more saying he was to busy ( Any way I am going of course here ) I had brought two very nice razors off him before and asked him did he make razors he said he did so he went ahead and made me this lovely razor it was great to shave at first then it seemed not want to shave me no more even after putting it on the chrome paste and stropping it felt sharp but it did not shave. So I sent it to inviable edge after talking to This guy called Adam I thought I would be talking to Steve but Adam told me he had retired Here is the reply I got from him "( Eric

Hi, I have received your razor in the post. You are right that it is not sharp. We have tried stropping it up through 4 grades of diamond paste, then chromium paste then bare leather and that is still not sufficient. So the only answer is honing but unfortunately we don’t undertake honing on this kind of unlabelled razor. Experience tells us that we will be at it for hours and that such razors will still not take a good or lasting edge. Consequently I will have to return it to you as it is. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.

Regards

Adam
The Invisible Edge Ltd.)
I felt a bit peed off after paying £200 and I have only used it a couple of times I spoke to Sharp & shiny he said he would look at it on Friday but it might take some time. he also told me that stropping wedges especially full wege razors is different from normal straight razors stropping. he has told me to go onto lynns video pages and have a good look and you will learn something. I just want to end to say a big UK thank you to all you guys who have come on here to help me especially Sharp and Shiny on top of given up his free time he had travelled from Basingstoke which is over a hour from Where I live which I could not believe that someone would travel that far to help me ( I know you our Colonial Cousins think a hour for a trip is nothing it is just like going down the shops for you guys I will give a udate sometime soon Have a good week Eric

Here is a update Sharp and Shiny came Friday afternoon and showed what and how to get a bevel and what stone I will have to buy everything is a lot clear now. He looked at the Razor that whittle1077 made for me and said this razor had not been honed at all he went on further to explain that others had brought razors from and complained about after the first shave had gone blunt just like mine and when someone tried to help him on here and give him a bit of kindly advice ( I think he said this Guy was called Bruno) who gave the advice then disappeared. Sharp & Shiny then spent a bit of time and managed to get a hone on it and the I can shave with this Razor instead of being a very expensive £200 ($310) paper knife. What I would like now is to change the scales from blue to red Acrylic if possible can anybody do this for me in the UK

Originally Posted by RobinK

It is always the bevel. People shaved with edges off 8k Nortons for a long time. Yes, a bit of polishing after that adds either keenness or comfort, sometimes both. But that is just fluff. A properly set bevel is something whose importance many people underestimate.

That should be a flashing banner at the tops of the Honing and Hones sections!

I went from 8K to a CrOx paddle for several years and got perfectly good shaves, the bevel set above all is the key successful honing.

Also as others have said, switching to a wedge after using a hollow takes a bit of use to get the feel again

Originally Posted by Utopian

That should be a flashing banner at the tops of the Honing and Hones sections!

Originally Posted by puketui41

I'm in the same boat. I've honed my share of razors and only have trouble with wedges and 1/4 grinds. I have one that i've managed to get to a level I'm happy with, but the other two, I've checked the bevel, reset the bevel, tried dropping back down to 8000# for twenty strokes then re-polish, then drop down to 8000# and re-polish testing each time to see if there's any improvement. I've tried slurry, pasted strops, less stropping pressure, more stropping pressure, you name it. I always seem to end up at the same place: a sharp razor with what in my experience is a well developed and polished edge that just doesn't shave as well as hollow razors

That is probably the reason, most razors of more modern eras, are hollow grinds instead of wedges. People are looking for a closer, easier, hair pinging shave. The wedge ground blade, if beveled, hone properly, will give you a good shave, but with slightly different end results, with proper technique, actually I prefer a hollow grind, I like to hear, and feel the hairs being snipped off cleanly, as opposed to a lawn mower effect of a none flexing wedge blade, just my opinion though.
When stropping a wedge, at least with my experience, there is no singing blade effect, heard from the blade while moving back and forth, on the leather, with the hollow grind, I can judge my strop, and blade sharpness, by the sound of the blade passing over the strop.

I have a couple wedges and after watching a few videos I tried one of the tips that was mentioned in one of them. That was that sometimes when there is a problem getting a good edge was to try adding another piece of tape or two to the spine. This did the trick for me on one of my wedges that was giving me problems. By the way, I'm no expert, still learning and I still have have problems from time to time. As the pros say, hone hone hone!


Mike


Mike

A properly honed wedge type blade profile should shave as close as a hollow ground blade profile. Wedge type profiles are more time consuming to hone correctly and is one reason they fell out of popularity. A properly honed razor (Wedge, Hollow grind, Frameback, nihonkamisori) can be used at zero angle exerting more pressure on the spine rather than at the edge.

There should be no tugging of the whiskers as you make your WTG, XTG or ATG shave pass. The wedge profile is called a silent shaver for a reason. The first step should be to access the edge under magnification. Then visually monitor the edge before, during and after edge progression weather honing on stones or stropping on mediums IMHO. Good luck sir.

Mike