Reincke Razors?...

I have a 4/8 full hollow Reincke Gold 2 razor (made in Germany) sold from Denver, CO. It seems more difficult to get good shaving sharp. Has anyone had experience with a Reincke? All my other razors respond well to my methods. Maybe it is just extra hard steel or it might be a bad forging. It has a fair amount of spine wear. Will this cause a problem with bevel geometry? I have honed, diamond stropped, and leather stropped and I can't get it to shave well. I am out of tricks. This one may leave the rotation if no remedy.

It looks like a rough old razor with lots of wear, lots of thick steel to go through before getting that nice edge.

Check the bevel first, then try the finer stones and strops.

Mark

After whining I decided to start all over with it. I carefully checked with magnification for pits, cracks, etc. on the edge. I found only one faint nick at the heel. I completely re-bevelled (using the SIDE of a fine Norton carborundum whet stone) making sure of zero frown. The spine was taped with 2 layers of good Scotch Tape and the bevel was done. Tape removed before a final barbershop stone honing followed by .50 diamond paste balsa strop finished with a good Shumate leather strop. I am soon to test these results. That very minor nick is gone and that might be what was causing the less than satisfactory shave. More later. Thanks for the reply. Is a Reincke a worthy keeper?

Prediction: (I've been wrong many times before so take it with a grain of salt):

Since you removed your tape after setting the bevel but before going to a finishing stone, you're not going to see any improvements. This has been well documented here before, but by removing tape halfway through, you're lifting the edge up off the spine making for a situation where the finishing stone can't polish the edge. If you tape to start, it's generally accepted and reported (I've found this as well) that you need to keep the tape on all the way up until stropping. Some say even when stropping, but I have not found this to be true. Then again, I rarely ever tape spines.

Please report your findings.

Chris L

When I tape the spine with 2 layers of Scotch transparent tape and use some torque keeping the edge on the stone it takes a while for the tape to be eroded away to bare spine metal. So far, this has worked as sort of an automatic bevel geometry compensator. By the time the tape is gone, the bevel is set to bare spine parameter. It saves the obvious wear to the spine. Only once with a badly sharpened blade did I forsake any tape at all. It aligned up well; however, there is uneven spine wear. No worry there, we don't shave with the spine! It just looks bad. Back to the test run: It was very good. The Reincke is my only razor that I did not re-bevel. All the other 6 needed it to some degree because of nicks, etc. From now on, any
razor I acquire will get the full overhaul including re-bevel. Enough of this yarn...Regardless of the opinions concerning quality of Reincke Razors, I plan to keep mine in rotation and carry it with me when traveling. Can the TIs, Pumas, Dovos, Ducks, ET.AL. REALLY shave that much better? Some day I would like to test shave with one of them, say at a SRP Seminar or Convention. I just might have to spend some serious money on my serious hobby/obsession. Thanks, Robert-with a great SOTD (Reincke 4/8 hollow, Bumblebee bay rum soap {from holi4pirating}, worn-out brush, done with rainwater lather). All is well now.