"Wedge" SE Razors?

[Charun]

Waits has this to say about L'Essor in his Safety Razor Compendium ..

- The logo "CSF"/CDSF on the box is not L'Essor-specific as it stands for "Chamber Syndicale Des Couteliers Detaillants Francais"

Its hard to date them but they were probably made around the 1920s..These French Hoe Types were pretty much all the same design..I just sold mine recently because I have a French Louis Hoe which shaves pretty much the same..A lot of these French Hoe Razors were sold under different brand names as well...Lovely smooth & forgiving shavers with a Hollow Ground Blade..


Billy

Thanks. That's pretty much what i was also able to find, so not that much info available i gather?


As for using wedge blades in a GEM Junior (or other that's designed to use disposable blades); doesn't that affect the blade angle? Wouldn't that affect the shave in itself quite a lot?
If you take a wedge blade that's say 17 degree and sit it to where a flat metal is intended to go, it would change the shaving angle by 8,5 degrees, and IMO in many cases that can make a great difference. Also if you take in account the curves of the comb, i'd think it's impossible to get the same angle with such different blades, even if you adjust your shaving angle accordingly..?

Whether that's a good thing or not i have no idea.

 

[spidey9]

Thanks. That's pretty much what i was also able to find, so not that much info available i gather?


As for using wedge blades in a GEM Junior (or other that's designed to use disposable blades); doesn't that affect the blade angle? Wouldn't that affect the shave in itself quite a lot?
If you take a wedge blade that's say 17 degree and sit it to where a flat metal is intended to go, it would change the shaving angle by 8,5 degrees, and IMO in many cases that can make a great difference. Also if you take in account the curves of the comb, i'd think it's impossible to get the same angle with such different blades, even if you adjust your shaving angle accordingly..?

Whether that's a good thing or not i have no idea.

A wedge blade in any razor is going to provide shaving experience that is completely different from that razor loaded with a spined blade. The optimal shaving angle will certainly be different.

The Junior carries 1900 and 1901 patents. Spined blades first made the scene around 1905, so the Junior is likely an adaptation of an earlier wedge blade razor. The Junior was first introduced in 1907. At that time the new spined blades may not have been universally available, so it seems logical that the razor may have been designed with some degree of backward compatibility, although I have no hard evidence of this.

--Bob

 

[Charun]

A wedge blade in any razor is going to provide shaving experience that is completely different from that razor loaded with a spined blade. The optimal shaving angle will certainly be different.

The Junior carries 1900 and 1901 patents. Spined blades first made the scene around 1905, so the Junior is likely an adaptation of an earlier wedge blade razor. The Junior was first introduced in 1907. At that time the new spined blades may not have been universally available, so it seems logical that the razor may have been designed with some degree of backward compatibility, although I have no hard evidence of this.

--Bob

That makes sense.
I think i'll have to give it a try once i get my wedges, as i already got a GEM Junior LC that has those 1900 and 1901 patent markings, so it should work fine (provided that the blades fit otherwise)?

 

[Sheffield Steel]

I have a very nice Globe with the stropping handle, not sure what to do with it. I played with stropping a blade from a Christy i have and found the handle to make it very simple task, holds the angle very well

 

[Charun]

Took my Wilkinson apart for cleaning and polishing:

Boy was it dirrrrty!
Now everything works buttery smooth and even the safety bar rolls with ease.

Next i'll need to clean and condition the strop, and hone some blades.

 

[Charun]

Got the L'essor yesterday. Now it's in the wash, and the blade (which was a Heljestrand MK to my pleasant surprise) needs some serious honing, but luckily this one also takes the modern SE blades, and aligns them in the correct angle to boot.

 

[Charun]

Cleaned and polished the blade (second row), and honed it (bottom row). Now i just need to strop and shave with it.

Sorry for the wacky white balance, but my cellphone couldn't do better. The flash also exaggerates the pitting - it looks much nicer in person.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Hells Sake..Some Job..I would have Binned those..

Billy

 

[spidey9]

Hells Sake..Some Job..I would have Binned those..

Billy

My thoughts exactly when I saw that humongous chip on the corner, not to mention the "smile."

Nice job indeed!

--Bob

 

[Slash McCoy]

I figured if I posted this half finished one, I would shame myself into finishing it. The first one I made got sold with an old lathercatcher that needed a blade. It shaved rather nicely. One a these days I will make a 7 day set of blades for one or another of my wedge SE razors. Not much to it... chop the ends off with a dremel, thin the spine on a belt sander and then sandpaper over tile, then hone. Cosmetic stuff aside of course. If you just want to shave, its about an hour all in. If you want it pretty, takes longer.

It sure would be nice if some company was still making these blades.

 

[Charun]

Hells Sake..Some Job..I would have Binned those..

Billy

My thoughts exactly when I saw that humongous chip on the corner, not to mention the "smile."

Nice job indeed!

--Bob

Thanks.
Taking care of the chip and smile was actually the easiest and fastest part of that resto. 400/1000 diamond plate made short work of those (took only a few minutes + about 10 strips of tape), but that Helje steel is so hard it took me 3 nights to hone the diamond scratches out and get a proper bevel set the whole way with a Naniwa SP1000.


Edit. Don't be too hasty to bin those blades. It's really hard to find those (at least around here), and fixing them isn't really that bad.

View attachment 647737

I figured if I posted this half finished one, I would shame myself into finishing it. The first one I made got sold with an old lathercatcher that needed a blade. It shaved rather nicely. One a these days I will make a 7 day set of blades for one or another of my wedge SE razors. Not much to it... chop the ends off with a dremel, thin the spine on a belt sander and then sandpaper over tile, then hone. Cosmetic stuff aside of course. If you just want to shave, its about an hour all in. If you want it pretty, takes longer.

It sure would be nice if some company was still making these blades.

Nice.
Starting to really wish i had enough space to get a belt sander. It sure would be nice to get new blades for these, and the Wilkinsons, but i'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. We'll just have to make do fixing the old ones, or making our own.

 

[Scooby Doo]

I have a very nice Globe with the stropping handle, not sure what to do with it. I played with stropping a blade from a Christy i have and found the handle to make it very simple task, holds the angle very well

Those Stropping Blades can be Maintained with a Keen Edge for a long time & brought back with some Chromium Oxide to refresh them when they Dull..


Billy

 

[Slash McCoy]

BTW I don't mean a Belt grinder. I mean an actual belt sander. Like $49.95 at Hone Depot. The kind you might sand oak tongue n groove floors with. A handheld power tool. Like this one.

And here is my latest wedge blade. Cut with a dremel, thinned with a belt sander, honed on a cheapie harbor freight diamond plate and an old 3 line Swaty. I just shaved with it a few minutes ago. It could use a proper finish but it shaved off the lathered Swaty okayish. I was just in a hurry and couldn't be bothered with breaking out a bunch of equipment.

 

[Karl G]

Cleaned and polished the blade (second row), and honed it (bottom row). Now i just need to strop and shave with it.

Sorry for the wacky white balance, but my cellphone couldn't do better. The flash also exaggerates the pitting - it looks much nicer in person.

Beautiful job - what did you use to clean and polish those blades?

 

[Charun]

BTW I don't mean a Belt grinder. I mean an actual belt sander. Like $49.95 at Hone Depot. The kind you might sand oak tongue n groove floors with. A handheld power tool. Like this one.

Ahh, gotcha. That might actually be doable once i get my own hobby corner to one of our rooms.
The blade also looks good. It's good to have an alternative, if the need arises and original blades are not available.

Beautiful job - what did you use to clean and polish those blades?

Thanks.
I cleaned them with a Dremel using a green polishing wheel, and then polished with a felt wheel combined with Autosol's Metal Polish. After setting the bevel i gave it one last rub with Cape Cod.
That's pretty much my go-to arsenal for all my resto's if there's no deep rust on the blade.

 

[Silverirae]

I've used regular SE's. But wanted to try one of these. I picked up a Rapide 7 day set. I'll just need to clean up the blades a little bit before I hone them up

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[Charun]

I've used regular SE's. But wanted to try one of these. I picked up a Rapide 7 day set. I'll just need to clean up the blades a little bit before I hone them up

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

You also need to post pics!

 

[Silverirae]

You also need to post pics!

I totally forgot to do my duty.

 

[Charun]

I totally forgot to do my duty.

Looking good! Puts my "6 day set" to shame.

Didn't realize that Rapide was a Henckels.. Thought it was French made for some reason. Live and learn.

 

[spidey9]

The original Rapide was the Ernst Scharff Rapide. Scharff patented the design in 1891 (US patent in 1892) and the razor was produced at his plant in Frankfurt, Germany.



Scharff's patent on the Rapide expired in 1911 and several manufacturers were quick to produce their own Rapides, the best known being J. A. Henckels. There were also several French manufacturers.

The Henckels Rapide has a head that is virtually identical to the last version of the Scharff Rapide. They added a larger knurled handle, and of course it came with Henckels blades made of Solingen steel - some of the finest steel in the world.



You are very fortunate to have a Henckels Rapide 7 day set, especially if all the blades look as good as the one pictured. Those blades can be honed to an unbelievably wicked crazy sharp edge.

--Bob