Wade and Butcher for Christmas

[ScoutHikerDad]

Actually, it was for my birthday back in July, when I stumbled onto half a dozen nice Sheffield razors for next to nothing (the old codger wanted $25 apiece, or 5 for $100), so I brought home these:

including this W&B Celebrated Fine India Steel Diamond Edge in very good shape save for some pitting. Here it is BEFORE after polishing with Mother's:


Anyway, with some time on my break from school and teaching, I'm "wadeing" through these. But after my near debacle on that Frederick Reynolds I posted about recently (where I got a little too busy with the greaseless compounds), I didn't want to buff away too much, so after unpinning, I decided to wet-sand the blade by hand from 400/600/800/1000/1500/2000. The scales were in pretty good shape, so just some light sanding. As the pivot hole seemed worn and over-size, I filled it with epoxy and re-drilled it to 5/64."

I then buffed both the blade and the scales out with white compound and Fabluster, and re-polished just the blade with Mother's. Not wanting to lose the stamps, I left a little pitting behind; we'll call it character. I re-pinned with double-stack brass washers and NiAg pins, and buffed them on the compound. Here are the results AFTER:



Full disclosure: Not sure how well it shows, but there's a crack running through the wedge hole (which I filled with Hot Stuff thin CA) caused by "carefully" attempting to punch out the pin , as well as a divot I took out with a dremel cut-off wheel while trying to shave down the original peen-dammit! Looks like a little compound left behind too, but I can hand-buff that off.

Though it feels fairly snug, the wedge is still a little off. I may try to tweak that a little later.

HONING: Though I struggled at first to establish a bevel-I have a habit of getting close and then losing it on these soft British blades!-after watching a few of Glenn's videos, I re-taped with two layers, went back at the Norton 1k, and quickly nailed the bevel this time. I then finished it with a Norton pyramid on the 4/8k to keep things predictable (still learning after 2 years), stropped 15 strokes on CrOx linen, and 50 latigo, and she was popping hairs, so I stopped there.

I'll shave-test her tomorrow for Christmas Eve, and then maybe tweak the edge as necessary.

What I learned: Though she's nice and shiny, she wasn't in bad shape to begin with. Considering all the time and effort I put into this, if I had it to do again, I might have just polished/buffed it up, tightened the pins, and honed her up. The more I do this, the more I think of the physician's creed: "First, do no harm."

Thanks for any feedback; constructive criticism welcomed. Merry Christmas! Aaron

[RMarsh]

Really nice job! It's posts like these that make me want to get into some light restoration work. I'm not there yet, but this post is motivation. Again, great razor, I hope she shaves as good as she looks.

[10Pups]

I learned to do everything backwards to what I was used to. Being somewhat of a fabricator my motto was bring out the big guns(tools) and finish with the finesse. It's a lot different with something already made and aged. Character is not a flaw and if it is, sometimes there is other details to consider :<0)

[sharptonn]

I learned to do everything backwards to what I was used to. Being somewhat of a fabricator my motto was bring out the big guns(tools) and finish with the finesse. It's a lot different with something already made and aged. Character is not a flaw and if it is, sometimes there is other details to consider :<0)

Could not have said it better, myself, Pups!
Enjoy the shaves, Nice old razor!

[walleyeman]

The only way to make better restorations is to dig in there and make mistakes! We all have done it! Some we admit to and others.....well!!
You are doing great! They can only get better and better. Many ways to get to the finished product. I mow my grass at a different angle each time but when it gets to a certain height. My neighbor on the other hand mows his grass every monday at 3 pm. He also mows the exact same pattern. The conclusion is the grass is shorter when we both are done.
Keep up the great work!!

Ray