Thread: W+B New Scales

Hi everyone,

A few years ago I inherited a Wade and Butcher but the scales were badly damaged. I stuck some stainless ones on there (see thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...r-restore.html) but it just didn't look right.

One day I came across a post by traps38 and he agreed to sell me a few wooden scales that he made himself. The only trick was, having a big razor, I needed to modify the wedge before the blade could close properly.

the first job was carefully unpin the scales and remove the old wedge:





Then I took a piece of scrap wood and made it thicker and shorter than the original wedge:





Then the tricky part, getting it all pinned together. Lots of last-minute adjustments to the wedge but I finally got it short enough. Notice how the pin has almost nothing to attach to!



I was also able to get Varthane and stain in handy squeeze bottles, which greatly helped with application. Sorry traps, I had to remove your shellac:




While I was working at it I decided to give the blade a quick sand with some high-grit micro mesh that I bought online. After that, it was time to pin, which is a story best saved for another day. So in the end here is how it turned out, I am very happy with the results. For some reason though, the camera just doesn't capture the full beauty of the piece:











Thanks again to traps38 for the scales and the extra washers and pins. His hard work making these scales by hand really helped to turn this into a personal show piece. Also a shout-out to Lynn who originally toiled to put a shave-ready edge on the ol' razor.

Nicely done! Enjoy the shave my friend!!
Ray

Glad i could help but you did that awesome work.

That beast is GORGEOUSSSS.

It looks like a beast from the jungle just waiting to rip off those hairs.

Great job.

Nicely done I bet loosing the Sweeney Todd scales for those wood ones up'ed the performance 10 fold by sheer balance alone. I always heard the Sweeney scales were the most unbalanced scales going. The W&B now probably handles like a sports car...
Congrats.....

Good point Tarkus. I remember opening my shave cabinet and always passing over the W+B. I thought to myself "Is it the blade, what is deterring me?" Then one day I picked it up off its stand and realized the scales felt horrible in my hands. It handles so much better now!