Thread: Making a broken Frederick Reynolds into a shortie

It happens.

I noticed my Frederick Reynolds developed a crack at the bevel. After quite a long time trying to research whether or not it could be repaired, I decided to convert it into a shortie.

I haven?t yet made my own scales, but I had some pre-made ?horn? scales in my drawer and decided to see what I could do.

After resetting the bevel and honing on a coticule and finishing on a La Lune, I tested it out this morning. The shortie shaved quite well, but I did find it a bit uncomfortable adjusting to the length of the blade. My muscle memory kept me thinking there should be another inch or two.

Here are a couple of pics once of which shows how the shortened scales compare to those I bought.

Nicely done. I think those scales look nice on it. It looks more like it should be called a stubby like the screwdrivers. It's got that look to it.

Originally Posted by DZEC

It happens.

I noticed my Frederick Reynolds developed a crack at the bevel. After quite a long time trying to research whether or not it could be repaired, I decided to convert it into a shortie.

I haven?t yet made my own scales, but I had some pre-made ?horn? scales in my drawer and decided to see what I could do.

After resetting the bevel and honing on a coticule and finishing on a La Lune, I tested it out this morning. The shortie shaved quite well, but I did find it a bit uncomfortable adjusting to the length of the blade. My muscle memory kept me thinking there should be another inch or two.

Here are a couple of pics once of which shows how the shortened scales compare to those I bought.

I agree. I could have tapered the pivot end of the scales more and still might, but was happy just to cut the blade down without ruining it and get it into new scales. The tail does seem to need to be exposed more to allow my finger to hook into it while shaving.

I agree that the tail end looks a little stubby but I usually don't hook the tail with my finger when shaving so it probably wouldn't make a difference to me.

You might say that it is a stubby tail along with being a stubby razor.

I didn't mean that in a bad way. On the contrary, I like that stubby look. As long as it works right I would leave it. If anything at all, the only thing I would do would be to make the scales a little more pointy on that pivot end.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I didn't mean that in a bad way. On the contrary, I like that stubby look. As long as it works right I would leave it. If anything at all, the only thing I would do would be to make the scales a little more pointy on that pivot end.

I didn’t take it in bad way at all Paul. After putting the scales on and shaving with it, I think tapering the pivot end more makes a lot of sense.