Thread: How wide the rear of a wedge should be?

The canoe comment hits home. That makes sense. And 3/4 to an inch sounds like a good number to shoot for. Thank you for that detailed comment. This has been some great information and will help me to make the scales and wedge match a blade properly. I bet your right Euclid440 about there really isnt a standard when it comes to vintage razors. But this will give me a good starting point.

Thanks to all for the comments and info. Ill take all of it into consideration when putting together my next razor. I enjoy this rebuilding of razors. The micro fasteners help a lot in this.

I also read in the library about making the fake blade to help in biulding the scales. I seen a vid that Glen had made using them. I'll have to make me some of those. Less handling of a actual blade when fumbling with the scales zound like a smart move.

Let me give you some rules of thumb

There are no razor tangs at the pivot larger then 1/4"
Starting with 1/8" thick material means you always have enough
The outside end of most vintage razors have a thickness of less than .065" more in the arena of .055" - .045" that is pretty darn thin
The thickness of the inside edge of the wedge would therefor determine the "Angle"
So set the angle form .045" at one end to .125 at the other on a 1" x 1" wedge this gives you the work angle, nowe you simple adjust the fit from there by thinning the .125" end...
Drill the hole and fit to the razor...

If you ALWAYS start with a 1x1 with these dimensions, it gets really easy for you to set the wedge for the different sized razors


Keep in mind there are basically 4 sizes of tangs on razor sizes

#1. 11/16 and below
#2. 13/16 and above
#3. 6/8 the oddball
#4 The old Stubtail / Frameback flats

Theses are the basics, of course there will be some that mess with your brain, if you mess with enough razors, which I am sure you will have in your hand "Murphy's Law"

The Mock Up bolts are an invaluable asset, as are the Mock tangs which you need 3 sizes 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4, to give the correct build angles

ps: It is not that I am really smart, it is that I have done a crap load of restores over the last 10 years, and already made all these mistakes for you

pps: Yes you really can do all the work on one side of the wedge, when you make the cut or sand it to fit, it will square up

So @gssixgun, Glen, just to be sure im understanding this correctly. 1x1 piece of material.
.045 on one end and .125 on other end. Then by sliding the wedge forward or back ill find the proper thickness the wedge should be. If not then sand one side of edge evenly till the proper size comes along.
This sounds too easy. Ill mess it up somehow!
I thank you for oing this for many years and making all the mistakes for me. This is one reason i asked this question. To learn fron others mistakes and not to have as many of them myself. Not that i wont have any or havent had any already. Ha. Thanks for the help glen.

And on another note

Originally Posted by Gasman

So @gssixgun, Glen, just to be sure im understanding this correctly. 1x1 piece of material.
.045 on one end and .125 on other end. Then by sliding the wedge forward or back ill find the proper thickness the wedge should be. If not then sand one side of edge evenly till the proper size comes along.

Pretty much,,,

Of course the more you do with the different sizes means you get more confident with the adjustments...

Keep in mind that you can ALWAYS take some away as you mock it up, and try the fit and function so go slow,


The oldest saying from the old Restore Chat Room was

"Rush a Restore,, Wreck a Razor"

Thanks Glen.

Last night I measured the tangs at the pin hole and the wedges of about 20 razors on my bench, about half were old horn, Sheffield’s.

The thin part was half the width of the widest part of the majority, (almost all) of the wedges, with 1/16 and 1/8 inch at the widest, being the most common.

The wedge width had no relation to the tang width, that I could tell. Many Sheffield’s of close to a ¼ in tang with 1/16 X 1/32 of an inch, lead wedges. And thinner tangs, with 1/8X1/16th in wedges.

BTW, I just bought 10 pounds of old taped Lead, wheel weights about 1x1X 1/8-¼” thick, for 10 bucks and $5 shipping on EBay.

He still has some left. (10 Lbs. of Automotive Stick on Wheel Weights)

Thanks for the heads up on the weights. I might have to look into that. Ill take you measurements into concideration. Its nice have the help and from others that have played with this stuff.

Measured the wedge i made to put in the scales im working on. .06 and .08, guess i got some work to do still. Not much of a wedge at this point. Damn this is small and thin. Hard to work with. I'll get it just going to have to do some more sanding.
Thanks all for the help in figuring out the differances and for some measurments to shoot for.

Wait a minute now. Thinking again. Acording to Glens numbers, that equals .015 per 1/8" of length. My wedge is about 3/8 long so im pretty close. I know this is just ballpark measurements but i feel better about my eyeballing of this wedge for a newbee.

Still a little more fine tuning to go but im close.

Here is the wedge gizzy I use. Quick and easy to make. I used a scarp piece of nylon and some 1/16" dia. nickel silver pins. Drill the holes a few thousands undersize and hammer the pins in place. Once they are in place hold the gizzy against the disk sander to reduce the length. The pins in my wedges are always 1/8" back from the edge so that is the distance between the pins. Take your wedge material measure back 1/8" inch and drill a hole. Drop it on the gizzy and hold it against the sanding disk. It's easy to sand on an angle to get the wedge shape. Do one side flip it over and do the other. Take a few cuts and sort of sneak up on it. It doesn't get much simpler. The last photo is a completed and installed horn wedge. You don't have to flip the wedge material but I find material is not always flat and the sanding helps provide some grip to the scale material. Many of the restores I do are near wedge grinds and the wedges typically taper from .030 to .075. I like to set the blade at least half way into the scales. I have made some that are as wide as .040 and taper to .090 or .100. Wedge length is 1/2" to 9/16" in length depending on the razor.