Thread: Frederick Reynolds for my Barber

Greetings everyone,

Last month I brought one of my razors to the barber shop so that my Barber, Lou, could use it on my neck and around my ears. He thought it was pretty cool, so he showed me that he had a whole box of razors. Apparently, many of his customers end up with old razors and just give them to Lou. No fair!

Anyway, he had some decent ones in his box that I thought I could fix up, so I took three home with me. The nicest one was a 7/8 Crown & Sword. It was a mostly just gunked up, but the handle was pretty warped too.

Another was a Bengall that Lou liked. The blade wasn’t too bad, but when I got it home I realized that the horn scales didn’t belong on the razor and were actually too big for it.

The third one was an old Frederick Reynolds. It was rusty, heavily pitted, and the horn scales were trashed. Those ended up being some of the least of its problems. (It kind of reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. )

In this thread, I’ll show you what I did with the Frederick Reynolds.

When I took apart the Reynolds, I realized that the edge was way off center and the monkey tail was bent.

I considered heating it up and trying to straighten it, but I decided I wouldn’t be able to do it without ruining the temper. Then I’d have to re-heat treat it. Since it’s not my razor, I didn’t want to risk it. I decided I would leave it as it was, unless it caused problems later (and it did).

I started hand sanding the blade and quickly realized that it was so deeply pitted that it would take me forever. Therefore, I decided to regrind the blade. It’s actually my first regrind on a straight razor, but I think it came out pretty well. I recently but a VFD on my Bader BIII, so I was able to slow the belts down to a crawl. I used a ten inch contact wheel, which worked out well. I got some nice Norax belts from Tracy Mickley, and took it down to 1,300 grit. I think the blade looks pretty good. It was a little nerve racking at first, but that sure is a heck of a lot easier that hand sanding for hours and hours.

I though that the Reynolds deserved to remain in horn scales. Since I didn’t have any laying around, and the Bengall’s scales didn’t seem to belong on it, I took those. They were pretty badly warped, so I put on gloves and held them over a steaming tea kettle. That seemed to do the trick. I got them pretty flat and sanded them down. There are still some dark stains in the horn, but they were too deep to sand out. Besides, it is an old razor.

I didn't think to take a picture after I cleaned up the horn, but hopefully this will give you an idea of how they looked.

When I assembled the razor, I ran into more problems. The edge was so far out of alignment, that I couldn’t shut the blade without hitting the scales. The tang hole was actually rectangular, and not perpendicular to the blade. I drilled out the hole and made it square to the blade, but it still wasn’t enough,

I liked the patina and pitting on the back of the razor and on the tang, so I tried not to do much work on them. However, since I couldn’t get the blade to close right, I finally started grinding on the tang. I didn’t want to remove the Reynolds’ stamping, so I stayed away from it. The grinding helped, but I finally had to give in, steam the horn again, and twist it until the razor would close nicely.

I put it all together, honed it up, and got a nice shave from it. However, I was not really happy with what I’d done to the tang. The places I ground no longer looked old. It really bugged me, so last night I etched the blade in vinegar. I am MUCH happer with it now. I like the patina on the blade, and the tang blends in better with the parts I didn’t grind.

This is the final result. I just need to hone it up and give it a test shave before I return it to Lou.

Nice work Chris. The blade looks like it turned out really nice. Your barber will be pleased.

Nice save. Always great to see horn & patina

Can you explain the vinegar trick to me?
It kind of restores the patina look, is that right?
G.

Thanks guys!


G,

The vinegar etches the blade and gives it a sort of grayish patina. I think the patina looks nice, and it actually gives the blade a bit of protection against oxidation (rust). If you have a blade with a temper line, the hardened steel (Martensite) will etch differently from the unhardened portions. This type of etching is the same process used to bring out the coloring of pattern welded (Damascus) steels.

You can use any number of substances to impart a patina, some more toxic than others. I find that vinegar (with a little dish soap to break the surface tension) gives the most natural aged color. It's also easy to get and won't hurt you if get some on you. I just use cheap grocery brand white vinegar. It will etch faster if you warm it up. I didn't warm mine, but it still only took me about ten minutes to get the color I wanted.

Ferric Chloride is another popular etchant, but I find that it imparts a rather yellowish tint. Some people use pool chemicals, but I think that's a bit dangerous.

With the vinegar or ferric, once you get the desired amount of coloring, you just put some ammonia on the blade to neutralize the etchant. I use Windex with Ammonia D, as it's relatively cheap and is easy to use.

Great work. Belgall looks great

Thanks for the tip. Perfect timing too. I'm working on a crown & Sword at the moment just like the one you posted. It had a nice looking patina but also some rust that had to go, so I'm doing some hand sanding. When I'm finished I will try your vinegar method to restore its character.

Lovely restore on the Reynold's to BTW great save.
Thanks
Grant