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smile?

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Not sure, do you have a picture of the straight you are referring to? Some straights are very large in the middle but a lot skinnier at each end...
 
I don't think it possible for the smile to be so extreme that you can't shave reasonably well.

Consider a hollow ground razor. Let's say the bevel angle is 17 degrees to start with. As the blade is honed away, this angle increases. By the time half the blade is honed away, let's say, the angle has increased enough so that it is hard to hone and strop and shave.

At this point, the razor is toast in my opinion.

So, technically, the smile... the honing away of the blade at the toe or heel has become too much. But, the smile - the smiling angle - hasn't done the damage. Rather, the bevel angle has proven a problem.

Let me rephrase. I believe...

If the bevel angle is maintained reasonably close to 17 degrees, the smile on a blade is not overly problematic as far as shaving.

It might make honing and stropping harder though!
 
Ok. Thanks for the replies. I am looking at "antique" starights. As in they are in antique shops. I guess my biggest question is this. Should the blade be the same thickness from edge to spine the full length of the blade? So if the outer most edge is 3/4in tall, then the middle and inner most, or pivit part are also 3/4in. Then if the spine, I assume its called the spine, has a curve to it, then the blade edge will also have a curve. The whole thing will look like a smile.:001_smile Is that correct, or should the blade be straight when the sharp edge is held to a flat surface regardless of spine curve? If the blade should be straight, then at what point do you say I'm not going to buy this one?

As you can tell, I haven't much of a clue.

Oh Scooby dumb where are you?
 
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