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Mr Reynolds is Causing Me Pain …

I'm leaning toward not, the one I have doesn't look buffed, at least not recently and it seems to have a similar disposition. I looked at it again since I shaved with it last and there appears to be some issues near the toe, although I think the kids made off with my higher powered loupe, so I'm basing this off of 10x magnification. I'm going to keep an eye on it. If I get bored I may try to hone/grind a little further up into the meat of the blade and see what happens.

Not sure what you mean by issues near the toe. I have seen numerous old Sheffields hold an edge except for the last few mm near the toe. So far the adage to stay on your 1k until the entire length holds an edge seems to be true.

My theory is that the geometry of the blade is such that the bevel angle at the toe is less and not sufficient to hold a strong edge. But I have yet to prove this theory.
 
Not sure what you mean by issues near the toe. I have seen numerous old Sheffields hold an edge except for the last few mm near the toe. So far the adage to stay on your 1k until the entire length holds an edge seems to be true.

My theory is that the geometry of the blade is such that the bevel angle at the toe is less and not sufficient to hold a strong edge. But I have yet to prove this theory.
Looks like possible microchipping, but it's hard to tell at 10x magnification. And yes, that's where it's the widest, so the bevel angle is consequently the lowest. I'm going to keep shaving with it and see if it holds up or gets worse.
 
Gentlemen, I have a razor that’s so far beaten me, but I am making progress and believe that I will get an edge in the next outing or two (I’m an optomist). It’s reminding me of Glen Mercurio’s saying that ‘Honing is easy, until it isn’t’. The razor is a Frederick Reynolds chopper, should be easy peasy but it’s been anything but easy. The problem is that when I go above a certain grit level, the edge breaks down. For instance, at 4k the edge is straight and even and will mostly pass HHT after stropping, at 8k it isn’t straight and even and won’t pass HHT. You can see the little shiny liney along the edge with a 7x - 10x loupe at 8k that isn’t there at 4k.

Usually an old chopper I don’t measure the bevel angle, because most of them are too steep anyway. But since this one wasn’t holding an edge at higher grits, I measured it, 16.6 degrees which is fine if the steel is good but apparently it is not. So I put a layer of 1 mil Kapton on it which which gave me about 17.1 degrees, and back on the stones. This time I had a straight even edge at 8k, and hair parted when it touched the edge. That’s a fully set bevel at 8k. But the shiny line and poor HHT is back after the JNat finisher, even with good slurry which tends to wear micro fins and burrs off, and again, you can see it. It’s a beautiful shiny bevel, it just has futz at the apex and I know that it will not shave well.

But I’m one step further and in a day or three I’ll try a layer of Scotch and a layer of Kapton which will give me about 18 degrees and we’ll see what that does.

Advice is most welcome!

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I had the same problem with a TI razor. The solution for me was to use a shapton gs 3k followed by a 6k. Then I finished on a jnat. I usually finish on a thin trace slurry, but for this razor I worked the slurry a little longer, and finished on a heavier slurry then normal. Sometimes going all the way to 8k before the jnat is not working for me.
 
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