In his book "Collecting Straight Razors" Robert Doyle says,"By 1870 the hollow ground blade took over the market. The large wedge blade was losing popularity, and was doomed in 1880 with the invention of machine forging and mechanized grinding."

I've never been out of the USA but at 61 years old I have always had a fascination with straight razors and like TBS I observed barbers with them back in the days when they used them routinely.

Add to that my going from shop to shop looking to buy old razors from barbers in the 1980s when I began to collect them. I don't ever remember seeing a barber with anything but a full hollow and the average size was 5/8.

Like many members here I've got various sizes and grinds and they are all good if they are sharp. I like shaving with all of them for different reasons, history and ambiance for the old wedges and they get the job done. If I was a barber shaving guys all day long I would opt for a full hollow 5 or 6/8 though.