THE RAZOR ALPHABET

[Smythe]

Notch (Barber’s Notch): That rounded cut-out at the point, does give the appearance of a “Demon Possessed Weapon of War”, but have no fear; the truth is a lot less complicated. Currently it is believed to have three main uses. 1) For Barbers, to “Mark” through the lather, the location of warts or other spots on the face to avoid, that would be otherwise be hidden under the lather covered face. 2) For Barbers, aid opening the razor with one hand by hooking the notch on the shirt pocket. 3) For Barbers, to easily trim Nasal and Ear hair with the point of the edge (this third use is debatable, but consider this, the notch does make the tip of the blade much narrower, so to reach into tight places).

 

[justin]

hanging hair test, or HHT: Along with the thumb nail test (TNT) and thethumb pad test (TPT), the HHT is used to assess the keeness of a razor's edge. The HHT tests the razor's ability to cut a single hair at a distance when held between the thumb and index finger. It is considered by some to be nothing but a parlor trick, but when used correctly it can be an effective way to measure a razor's keeness. See the Hanging Hair Test article in the Sharpening Academy for information regarding the use of the HHT. See the Edge Probing and Assessment article for more information regarding razor tests.

X-stroke: The most fundamental of all honing strokes. Starting on the heal and (during the stroke) gradually moving the razor horizontally until the toe comes into contact with the hone; the back and forth strokes form an 'X' pattern. X-strokes should be used regardless of whether or not the hone is wide enough to accommodate the entire length of the razor. This ensures that the whole length of the edge comes into contact with the hone, compensating for the hone's unevenness. See the honing strokes article for graphical illustrations, and more information regarding honing strokes and their uses.

 

[Smythe]

Spine (Back): Runs the length of the blade from the point to the tang and gives the blade its strength with its volume. It is said to be the second most important part of the blade, in fact, there can be no edge without a spine. Spines come in many forms, the rounded (teardrop) being most common, others include the Diamond, Worked back (or fancy) and the ultra rare Flat back. Spines are mostly straight but a few are Arched or Curved when viewed from the face. The straight razor blades’ spine sets the angle of the edge, in fact it may be the only tool whose cutting edge is set by the width of its spine.

 

[justin]

The straight razor blades’ spine sets the angle of the edge, in fact it may be the only tool whose cutting edge is set by the width of its spine.

If it weren't for this fact I probably wouldn't be here! :

 

[Smythe]

lol... me too, I find it difficult to sharpen a knife by hand without a jig.

The straight razor blades’ spine sets the angle of the edge, in fact it may be the only tool whose cutting edge is set by the width of its spine.

If it weren't for this fact I probably wouldn't be here! :

 

[Smythe]

Hone Relief: Nope, it’s not a vacation from honing; it’s a triangular taper, cut at the lower part of each side of the tang near the heel of the blade. As the name suggests, the cut narrows the tang in that area to avoid hitting the edge of the hone (most likely cause the hone to chip) at the start of the stroke.

 

[justin]

This is a big 'n:

razor grind: Not a tool, rather it's a property of a razor. The grind of a razor refers to the hollowness, or concavity of it's sides. The grind can range from full hollow, where the blade is essentially a thin slice of metal coming off of the spine, to a wedge, where the razor is almost completely flat on its sides. The more common grinds found inbetween include 1/2(half) hollow, and 1/4(quarter) hollow. Full hollows typically have a smaller bevel, while wedges have a large bevel in comparison. As a result, when using a Coticule, full hollows are typically much quicker to hone than a wedge since less metal needs to be removed. Razor grind comes down to personal preference, as no single grind is better than another, their only difference is weight. The less hollow a razor is the more it weighs. Some find that the extra weight of a wedge helps to plow through a thick, stubborn beard. Picture showing the different grinds. Honing wedges.

 

[Smythe]

Bevel: Every working cutting tool has at least one, and a properly sharpened razor will have at least one closest to the edge on either side (in some cases, two on either side). Though we prefer them to be small (for quicker sharpening), they will inevitably grow with each sharpening, not so much on full hollow blades, but quickly to monstrous size on near wedge grind blades, of course, the size of the bevel on a true wedge can becomes the entire width of the blade.

 

[Bart]

Justin, (and other Gents),

I've add a menu entry under "Heritage", and started building a glossary system. Never mind the generic CSS formating, we'll deal with that later.
As agreed, I'm going to grant you access to the back-end pages where you can add more terms. It allows for the inclusion of images as well.

Justin, give me a few more days to figure it out a bit better and set you up with enough power to work on this project, but not so much that you could accidentally delete the whole website.:scared: I'll drop you an e-mail when I installed your new user rights.

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[justin]

Justin, give me a few more days to figure it out a bit better and set you up with enough power to work on this project, but not so much that you could accidentally delete the whole website.:scared: I'll drop you an e-mail when I installed your new user rights.

We wouldn't want that happening would we?! : I'm pretty savvy when it comes to computers, but this whole Internet & website stuff is new to me. It'll be a good experience.

Thanks,

Justin

 

[Bart]

Nice work, Justin.

I've made a little tweak into the PHP template. You can now link to a glossary term, by adding #term. Example: http://www.coticule.be/straight-razor-dictionary.html#Spine

Some further food for thought: I 'm all for keeping the definitions as short as possible. Only the bare essential. Additional information should be provided through links. This is just my personal view of this matter. What do you guys think? Straight Razor Encyclopedia to Straight Razor Dictionary?

Bart.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

Short and sweet works far better with links of course, just my humble...

 

[Smythe]

You never know... with time, a dictionary can quickly become an encyclopedia once the graphics/photos and updated descriptions are added... books could probably be written on the controversial subject of the razor point (or is it the toe?).

Incidentally do we use standardized graphics/photos? (maybe to save on server space?)

 

[justin]

I was thinking about the same thing. I have a couple long ones there where it was starting to feel like I was writing a paper.(ahhhhhh run!) : Ones like the HHT one can be really short, and just link to the HHT article. We only need to note about wedges be a bit more difficult to hone in the 'wedge' definition, not in the 'grind' definition also. etc.

Just an idea, if somebody starts feeling a little frisky they can write up a nice interesting article on such matters. e.g. It's a rainy night and Smythe doesn't want to leave his lair so he might sit down (errr hang) with a glass of wine (i.e. blood) and write an interesting piece about the 'razor's point'.

Incidentally do we use standardized graphics/photos?(maybe to save on server space?)

I vote for using original photos. I have some server space at school...

Justin

 

[justin]

Hey Bart,

How exactly does the anchor thing work again? Is it #[the exact name]? Like say you have

Smile, smiling edge then how does it go? #Smile?


Full Hollow --> #Full_Hollow or #Full ?

Justin

 

[justin]

I just added a bunch. I think it should be up to date with everything in this thread. It still needs a little refining (links, error checking, etc.). If anybody sees anything that should be changed holla.

Justin

 

[Smythe]

:w00t: Man this great Justin, I couldn't do it better myself.
I have a few more add... and also finish "Points"... maybe i could send you what I have so we don't duplicate our efforts.

Enjoy the season my friend.

 

[Bart]

Hey Bart,

How exactly does the anchor thing work again? Is it #[the exact name]? Like say you have

Smile, smiling edge then how does it go? #Smile?


Full Hollow --> #Full_Hollow or #Full ?

Justin

First off:


:thumbup: :love: EXCELLENT WORK, JUSTIN!:love: :thumbup:

I don't know how the anchors behave when there's a space in the lemma. I'll look into it and let you know.

I also think we might need a better place in the menu structure for our dictionary, than where it's located now. If you guys have any suggestions, I'd welcome them.

I have to go sit at the fireplace now, watch "Dances With Wolves" (this year's substitute for "The Sound of Music"), together with my wife and kids, my best friend, his wife and kids, and my bottle of Highland Park 18y.
Later when I have less important matters to attend to, I'll add my suggestions for the Dictionary.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

I have to go sit at the fireplace now, watch "Dances With Wolves" (this year's substitute for "The Sound of Music"), together with my wife and kids, my best friend, his wife and kids, and my bottle of Highland Park 18y.
Later when I have less important matters to attend to, I'll add my suggestions for the Dictionary.

Ahh dances with wolves, Jay Silverheels at His finest. My Alicia said it was that long and slow to start that when she watched it she bailed out half way through and wanted to go upstairs to iron her face to relieve the boredom! hahaha

 

[Bart]

I don't know how the anchors behave when there's a space in the lemma. I'll look into it and let you know.

Justin,

I fixed the link of "Full hollow". There's nothing different than the links for single word anchors. The problem was in the fact that these anchors are case-sensitive. "Full Hollow" does not equal "Full hollow".

Kind regards,
Bart.