Thread: wedge-like shaver

Imagine that you have a razor that originally had a blade that was half or quarter hollow ground. Now imagine that much of the spine has been honed away but there is still perhaps 4/8" of the blade remaining. Would the razor approach shaving like a wedge? If so and you like the way a wedge shaves, you might be able to restore one of your very worn razors into a wedge-like shaver. Or am I missing something?

I think if the spine lost that much metal it would have to be about 1/8 thick maybe alittle wider to have a blade 4/8 wide, but seems possible.

In some cases there might be a loss of temper in the metal getting close to the spine depending on tempering method of maker.

Theoretically your idea is sound providing bevel is not too big.

What's wrong with a large bevel. A full wedge is all bevel.

Originally Posted by htmitten

What's wrong with a large bevel. A full wedge is all bevel.

hence why you won't find any true wedges unless you get a VERY old blade. Almost all wedges have the slightest hollow so you aren't removing the whole face of the razor when honing it.

There is another problem here: The thickness of the blade decides the angle of the cutting edge. Usually, a razor's blade is about 3.5 times as wide as it is thick. This produces the preferred cutting edge angle. If you were to remove significan amounts from the width of the blade, expect the angle to be messed up and less than stellar. Ideally, if you wanted to use such a blade, you probably would want to grind the width down some to accomodate the lesser width of the blade.

If your razor originally was 8/8 and now is down to 4/8 I would not bother unless you regrind the spine. If it was 5/8 and now is 4/8 it probably would not be too much of a problem.

Best of luck!

Whether it approaches a wedge, in the limit, depends on the radius of the grind and the type of grind I would have thought. Probably the best way to visualise it would be to consider a straight line tangent to say a parabolic curve at or near the origin, and then take the limit.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Whether it approaches a wedge, in the limit, depends on the radius of the grind and the type of grind I would have thought. Probably the best way to visualise it would be to consider a straight line tangent to say a parabolic curve at or near the origin, and then take the limit.

James.

uh... wut?

Originally Posted by htmitten

What's wrong with a large bevel. A full wedge is all bevel.

I would think you would find even if the razor was a true wedge it still would never have a full bevel, because it would simply be wrong, you would not expect anyone in their right mind to try and actually sharpen the razors edge where both sides of the entire steel face of the razor would have to contact and try to move that amount of metal each time you took it to the hone, just tape it and form a micro bevel a very simple solution, a full bevel on any cutting edge IMO is wrong, as a Carpenter we were always taught to have a grinding angle and a cutting angle on our chisels just makes for quicker and easier sharpening and blade maitenance.

Jamie