Thread: Fredrick Reynolds 6/8 barber notch a labor of love

I picked this guy up a couple of months ago and just got around to working on it. I was originally going to sell it but I think I will hang onto this one. I have another just like it and it shaves very nice.


The blade had some light rust and a lot of patina, the scales were cracking and de-laminating. My original intent was to salvage the scales but after a couple days of work they still looked bad. I got them cleaned up and re surfaced but the areas that had started to de-laminate still had the bubbles in them. If they were black horn you would not have seen it but because they were translucent you could see every defect. So I decided to make a new set of translucent horn scales for the blade.


The blade got some heavy sanding to remove the rust and pitting. It went from 400 grit up to 8000 grit. I have a good 15 hours of hand sanding invested in it. Then it got a full buffing treatment to polish it out to a near mirror finish.


It is pinned with 1/16 brass rod with brass over stainless washers and the blade has brass thrust bearings. The wedge is white horn. I wanted to keep the original appearance of the razer and I think I managed to pull it off.


It gets honed tonight then put into service tomorrow morning. Enjoy the photos.

Wow, great work. Truly looks superb, probably better than new, as I doubt they would have achieved that mirror shine back in the day. Where do you get 8000 grit, or is it micro mesh?

And for the record is that notch verging on Spanish point? Who else thinks so? I call it a Spanish notch!

Outstanding work! I love horn scales.

I have another FR barber notch that I put into bone with a moseic wedge pin. The barber notch is large like that as well.

I just finished honing it. Scarry sharp edge. It gets a shave test tomorrow.

what kind of stones hone up the reynolds the best?

Well, this one started with a 320 diamond plate to cut the new bevel. Then a 600 diamond, 1200 diamond, 4000 norton, 9000 King with a slurry, then a 9000 King with no slurry then a 12000 with a light slurry, then no slurry to polish. After that 0.5 micron chromium oxide and leather. That gives me a nice polished scary sharp edge. Most of my razors get a simular progression.

Originally Posted by Scipio

Wow, great work. Truly looks superb, probably better than new, as I doubt they would have achieved that mirror shine back in the day. Where do you get 8000 grit, or is it micro mesh?

Micromesh. I have it up to 12000 but with the buffing compounds it is not necessary to go all the way up the scale.