Frederick Reynolds 6/8" wedge with barber notch and original? wood scales

It's a full 1/4" wide spine in a 3/4" blade... so almost 9.5 degree grind angle (19 degree included). It appears as though it started at 3/4", I'm not sure but there's very little evidence of hone wear. And it has probably the most natural looking smile I've ever seen. scales are freakishly cool, sadly the razor swings freely in them and the heel is VERY close to sticking out the end when closed. There are also a number of cracks (It's very old wood) in them. I'd guess this razor has to be late 1800's. And if so it's in quite good condition.

It looks like a wedge and certainly has enough weight, but there is a small line of the very slightest grind at about the midpoint of the blade on both sides. It's like wedge 1/2 down, then a tiny tiny indent, then wedge after.

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Those are very cool scales. I would guess that it was a rescale, though, as oppose to the originals (not that there's anything wrong with that, it adds its own bit of history to the razor).

Is that a grind line in the bottom shot (parallel to the bottom of the tang, on the blade). It looks like a ridge - maybe it's just the lighting.

Thats the line I was talking about where the edge moves in and then resumes being a wedge. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it certainly appears to be part of the grind. It follows out at exactly the tang level on both sides. I'll know more once I see a scratch pattern upon honing.

Hm, maybe someone was trying to imitate the W&B's FeatherEdge design. Or maybe it's an incomplete or primitive regrind. Do keep us posted as you clean her up.

A abandoned or screwed up regrind would make sense with how it's leveling out.

This razor is taking waaaay more time and effort than I anticipated. However, I finally got around to doing a full shave with one of my Sheffield's (A "Extra" hollow no-name with some just godawful thin cellulose scales (They touch when you hold them with just enough pressure to keep the razor from falling out of your grip just holding it, not even shaving. It's a nightmare trying to keep from tapping them with the toe when you close it.) and the shave was awesome. So I'm hopeful that once I get this thing honed into something usable, it will all be worth it.

I've done about 5 hrs of circle-honing on a 220grit. It's tedious, so I watch tv while I do it. Kind of wish I had a belt sander. I considered my dremel, but I'm really not removing that much metal (It's just very hard steel), so I figure I'm just as likely to do more harm than good with the dremel. I'd guess another 2-3hrs and I'll finally have a straight edge on it. It's doubtful it will ever LOOK totally like a wedge. Most of the blade will, but the heel is honing up almost exactly like my hollows. Line of spine wear, big untouched area, bevel. The rest of the blade is honing up like I'd expect a screwy wedge to hone (Massive spine wear stripe, thin untouched area, laughably huge bevel). I'm expecting the bevel and spine wear will meet or come just barely short of meeting each other when I finally have the edge straight.

Sounds like a Reynolds to me. I've had a few with such hard steel that I've sworn off buying any more of them. I'm sure once they're ready they'll hold an edge forever, but it's so much work to get them there...

Lol, good, it isn't just that I'm getting too weak to hone ;)


Maybe an hour left on the 220 grit now. Soooo close.The spine now has wear it's full length, the bevel has about 8mm left to go to reach the toe.

It's beveled. I've got blisters on me fingers!


So I won't be finishing it tonight.

It pretty much is a wedge, with chunks that were obviously ground out, for some unknown reason. I'll get some pics up after I finish it. It's sharp enough to whack a chunk out of my thumb pad when it swings closed nice and cleanly. Still has a faint smile, but it's weak enough I should be able to get it honed the full length.

Did you try to hone the smile out? A smiling blade is by no means a bad thing.

Yeah, I'm aware that smiles are considered beneficial, unfortunately I'm not good at honing strong smiles at all. I took about 2/3 of the smile out and now I can get it into contact. I managed to get a shaveable edge on it. Took a few swipes despite some microchips I hadn't bothered taking out completely. Less than satisfactory. I'm going to take it through the stages one more time to rid it of these chips and it'll finally be good to go. It's interesting wielding something this heavy. Definitely makes the neck and jawline strokes more sure and deliberate. I can see the appeal of the big ol W&B and the like meat cleavers. The thing would actually still look half decent if I took the time to polish the areas that aren't quite touching stone yet. It's all nice and mirror shiny on the "wedged" areas.