Originally Posted by
Obie
Sergeant,
The name Wade & Butcher will make people do strange things. It's the perfect example of hype and fashion. There are razors from the same era that are just as good and if not better than Wade & Butcher, but for various reasons the name promotes tunnel vision.
Don't get me wrong. I have a pair of matching Wade & Butchers in ivory and love them. I have had others and loved them, too. Yet, I have had other Sheffield razors as well — Frederick Finney, Frederick Reynolds, George Packwood, and so on — that also have been gilded razors, although somewhat overshadowed by Wade & Butcher. That's reality.
Why anyone would bid on this particular blade comes in two answers: 1) The buyer is a master restorer and, perhaps, has a magical way of making a new razor out of it, and 2) the bidder knows nothing about straight razors and is bidding on the strength of the name.
Seeing the razor, I frown, scratch my head and shuffle away to a better neighborhood.