Thread: Frederick Reynolds - The Celebrated Hollow Ground

Yep. For sure.

The etch looks good and legible, so leave it. If there was a bunch of pitting, then I would sand it out.

I hate hone wear, drives me nuts. Specially the wonky, uneven from side to side, and toe to heel. All caused by some ham fisted, unknowing, self proclaimed, honemiester.

Or the guy, that flat hones a smiling razor till its a true...straight edge, or it frowns.

It's going to be hard to keep off that engraving trying to get rid of that hone wear. Because of the grind angle it is going to be necessary to sand over the top of part of it. Hopefully it's deep enough to still show.

When you peen over the tops of the pins it compresses them some which makes the pin swell. It swells and it will bevel toward the top. That's why the pins filled up the holes in the scale. It is always best to drill the pin through the scale especially on old horn which can shrink some. It is also a trick to keep from drifting into the horn. Use a drill press if you have one and go slowly. A cradle for the razor to keep it from tipping or scooting is also helpful. It doesn't have to be rounded. A block of wood with a triangular notch will work. Usually you don't have to go the whole way through, just enough to take the swelled top part off but it is better to go further than you need than have them crack. I think we have probably all done it before.

I use magnification when drilling pins. That way I know I'm staying centered on the pin.

I've only had a few crack, usually because of how dry the horn was. Very dry= very brittle. Some are best to soak in oil before disassembly. IMHO

Even have had some I've had to drill from both sides because the pin was badly bent.

If the pin won't push out with a punch, by hand...it hasn't been drilled enough, or the pin is bent.

Originally Posted by outback

Yep. For sure.

The etch looks good and legible, so leave it. If there was a bunch of pitting, then I would sand it out.

I hate hone wear, drives me nuts. Specially the wonky, uneven from side to side, and toe to heel. All caused by some ham fisted, unknowing, self proclaimed, honemiester.

Or the guy, that flat hones a smiling razor till its a true...straight edge, or it frowns.

I think I’ll take Mike’s advice and work on the scales and leave the hone wear for another time. The bevel seems good and as long as the geometry works, I’d prefer to leave the etching intact.

If I really screw the scale repair up, I have a couple of bone scale blanks I’ve been saving to try out when I find the time and the motivation.

Got the scales done. They aren’t perfect, but I’m very pleased with how my first attempt turned out. Thanks for the detailed advice Mike.

I used graphite powder and Gorilla Glue Epoxy for part and graphite and CA for another part. The Gorilla Epoxy took almost 24 hours to properly harden and the CA took much less.

Sanded down the rough spots this morning and now they go into the neatsfoot oil for a couple of days.




While the scales sit, I’ll continue to work on the blade.

Maybe consider a little more time in the neatsfoot. Some leave them for weeks rather than days although some of that depends on how dry they were at the start. At least that's how I decide how long.

I'm typically soaking a minimum of one week for good condition scales. Others, even longer.

Let um soak while you finish the blade, they won't rot in the oil, but you'll probably have to flatten them again, once you pull them

Done for now. I wanted to assemble the razor, hone it and try it out later this week.

In spite of the hone wear, the geometry seems OK and I was able to get a reasonable bevel set.

My hone progression was Shapton 1k => BBW slurry to water => coticule slurry to water => Naniwa 12k

I’ll let you know how it shaves.

Looks good David. I look forward to hearing how that shave went.

Good stuff David. That has come together very nicely indeed. Great job on fixing up those old scales.