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  1. #1
    Junior Member LERigney's Avatar
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    Default Smiles and Frowns

    What does it mean when the blade of a razor has a smile or a frown? Are these razors okay to purchase, or just a waste of money if planning on using them, and not as display?

  2. #2
    Comrade in Arms Alraz's Avatar
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    Smiles and frowns are curvatures on the edge. In the case of smiles, sometimes by design. Both frowns and smiles can be the result of poor honing. A smile would look like a happy face and the frown like a sad face. In other words, the smile would like like a belly protruding from the center of the edge (convex) and the frown, would look like a depression in the center of the blade (concave). Many people like smiles. Smilies are harder to hone but look great. I do not know the first frown that people like ;-).

    Al raz


    Quote Originally Posted by LERigney View Post
    What does it mean when the blade of a razor has a smile or a frown? Are these razors okay to purchase, or just a waste of money if planning on using them, and not as display?

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  4. #3
    Junior Member LERigney's Avatar
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    Do they require a different technique to strop them?

  5. #4
    Comfortably Numb Del1r1um's Avatar
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    a smiling blade doesn't need any special techniques really for stropping, but honing can be a different story...

    a frowning blade on the other hand, well I'll just say that I would hone the frown out before using it. I'd rather my blades be happy than sad

  6. #5
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    I could be wrong about this but I always thought a frowing blade was only from bad honing. It seems I remember reading somewhere in here to be very cautious of them because they can be very difficult to repair, if not impossible. I would think it depends on how much of a frown. A frown is when the blade is narrower in the middle of the blade than on each end. One of my best shavers, a wade and butcher, has a smiling blade by design and I love it.

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