Thread: Why a Wedge Spacer?

In the most cases it is in my opinion not necessary to work with a wedge buttspacer. Because I have some problems to explain this right I have made the follow draft:




Number 1 is, what are all speaking about. You have an wider pivot than the spacer. Here you will have stress to the end of the scales. How much depends, how great is the difference between the pivot an the wedge thicknes. A 8/8 Friodur hast 6 mm at the Pivot and because of the full hollow ground blade a 2 mm spacer could be enough. This is to much difference. If you use a 4 mm spacer and a third pin, that impeded that the blade go threw the scales, there is no problem.

Number 2 Here we can see the right use of a flat spacer. The difference between pivot and spacer thickness is similar. There you dont have stresslines in the wood. 1 - 2 mm difference are not a problem, because wood is an elastic material and the length of the scales are 6 inch. Also if you got some little stress, because of the tappered pivot, if you open or close the razor, this will not be importand. The most time the razor is closed. The rest time of 5% (stroping, honing etc.), when the razor is open, the wood handle can easily manage this little presure.

Number 3 Often seen. The wedge is to great and the scales open to much at the pivot. When you now close them to pin the blade you will get often cracks between the scales and the wedge. It is nearly impossilbe to pin the wedge hard enought to avoid this, because of the great lever when you close the scales.

Number 4 Same problem like Nr. 3. Now you have permanent stress of the scales at the sides. With plastic as an homogen artifice material is this not a big thing. But wood work with the time and is not so homogen at al the parts. I seen some razors, where one side of the scales warped and the other stayed straight because of that. The effect of this is, that the razor no close centered.

If you want to use an wedge spacer, do it right. To avoid stress to the scales it is absolutely necessary to assemble the angle of the wedge very good to the used blade. If you do this only with your feeling and aesthetic aspects, you will often get more problems, than with a flat spacer. In the most cases a flat spacer will do the job as well, but it is much easier to handle.

My2cent

Here are somethings I have found to be pretty true.. (I am sure there are exceptions)
I have never taken a vintage razor apart that did not have a wedge...
I have found, that they kinda knew what they were doing back then...
The slightly bowed scales have more strength....

A general rule of thumb to make a wedge, start with a piece of material that is half the thickness of the tang, then create the wedge shape and adjust to fit....


Now because of the changes in new materials vs old, I do not think a wedge is absolutely necessary on many razors, but me I am kinda old fashioned, and if a design has worked for 200 + years, and on many razors, it is still working, why argue with success.....

Of course the above is just my opinion....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Here is somethings I have found to be pretty true.. (I am sure there are exceptions)
I have never taken a vintage razor apart that did not have a wedge...
I have found, that they kinda knew what they were doing back then...
The slightly bowed scales have more strength....

A general rule of thumb to make a wedge, start with a piece of material that is half the thickness of the tang, then create the wedge shape and adjust to fit....


Now because of the changes in new materials vs old, I do not think a wedge is absolutely necessary on many razors, but me I am kinda old fashioned, and if a design has worked for 200 + years, and on many razors, it is still working, why argue with success.....

Of course the above is just my opinion....

Nice point.. I have actually been wrestling with the wedge/flat spacer idea recently... but this makes sense to me. Why mess with perfection?

Thanks for all of the info. Here is a picture of why I was thinking to rescale, they are uneven. It works just fine, it just bugs me. I also think the blade might be bent, but I'll start another post for that.

I think Buddel said it when he said "if you want to use a wedge spacer, do it right." That's pretty much the point. To avoid certain stresses in the scales and to acheive a flush fit, a lot of time and consideration has to be taken. Personally I do it by feel and have few problems but have practiced a lot. I don't think the flat spacer does as good of a job as a well done tapered spacer though and it is much less aesthetically pleasing. The bottom line is that there is an easy road and a hard one. The hard one, if done well, yields a greater accomplishment.

One thing I am not getting!

What the heck is scale stress?

I just cant see a problem, unless you make something extremely wrong looking.

Originally Posted by kevint

What the heck is scale stress?

It's what happens when you don't rest your razor enough

(I couldn't resist! sorry sorry!)

you're funnier than that Lee

A 3 pin is purposely stressed for instance.

Great thread. Mr. Buddel props for your designs. Inspirational really