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Shaving with a frown edge...

bbr6704

Well-Known Member
Hello Gentlemen,

I'd like to introduce you a razor my mother found in a antique store and gave me :

100_7110.jpg
100_7111.jpg


It's a nice sheffield blade ground in Germany...

It's in quite good condition, but with a lot of honewear... and a big tfrown in the middle of the edge.

I reduced it a little, but not completl, as it would have made a too small blade. (was kind of 7/8 when new, it wuld have reduced it to 4 or 5/8)

So I honed it, insisting on spike and spine, and test shaved.


Shaves fine, but I don't fell totaly confortable with it.

Would you have any advice on shaving with such a frown edge?
 
Been there, done that, and all...
In my experience, unless you have a *very* round face (to the point where one might start considering changing nutrition habits), a frowning blade will pose a problem, most noticeable for shaving the more hollow parts of the neck. Cheeks can be "puffed" up to counteract the concave shape of the edge, but at the neck, that is not possible.

In the end, I believe you will have to face the fact that the razor is as wide as its narrowest point, and chose to remove the frown. :( Otherwise, the razor will probably end up seeing only very little use.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Thank tou bart for your answer...

That's wat I was afraid of...

What still makes me wander, is tha his former owner certainly used it like that... I'd really like to know what was his secret... (maybie was he much more fat than me...)
 
bbr6704 said:
Thank tou bart for your answer...

That's wat I was afraid of...

What still makes me wander, is tha his former owner certainly used it like that... I'd really like to know what was his secret... (maybie was he much more fat than me...)

If it was yesteryears user, he probably owned just one straight razor, and the frowning edge slowly grew on him during the years. Eventually the frown would have become pronounced enough for him to experience less good shaves. Many razor manufacturers offered a regrinding service to bring razors like this one back into proper service. I was told that Dovo still extends such service today.

Bart
 
IF you owned a razor like this for decades,it would`nt be a problem as you would get used to the frown/angles/honing procedure. In the past razors were expencive and almost financially unabtainable,so most people had just one -some were fortunate enough to have money to go to the barber- so they had to make the best of it.

So if you were given a razor at the age of 13 and it should last a lifetime,it would surely be marked by you`re honing skills and personal preferences. Or it just turned out like this..Shaving was`nt a fine art in the past but a daily need. We are fortunate enough to have the time and money to play around with razors but it was not like that in the past.

Torbs
 
If I were you, I'd use the bevel calculator to establish if the narrowest width for spine thickness was a shaveable razor.
If not, stick it in the bin, unless you like restoration practice?
Otherwise I'd bread knife this one and re establish a bevel on a straight edge.
This may show up some thick bevels (or not) in which case a regrind would be required.
Only you can decide if it's worth the effort or not???
I've persevered with a lot worse. :(

Joe
 
By the way, silver steel gives a very nice edge.
I would say the included bevel angle should be no more than 25 degrees to be a decent shave.
Some would say about 20 degrees.
 
My friend ,i believe not worth it to deal with this razor. Because 1) should be reground it which means will lost the engraving.2)in the same time must be become thinner on the spine so that angle to be 17 deg estimate 3) to remove metal over the edge making it as narrow as possible.So is more logic to keep it for collectibles purposes.
Wishes
Emmanuel
 
If spin is to thin, you can make a snap on jig and re align everything on a corse hone.
I've done that one also, pain in the arse but it does work.
All depends how determined you are.

good luck:thumbup:
 
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