Two big W&Bs plus my first try at custom horn scales

Unfortunately (for my bank account) I love wide blade Wade & Butchers. These two are my conscious attempt to say to myself "You don't need any more!".

The wedge is a monster 9/8 and very heavy. The Celebrated Hollow Ground is just over 8/8, but not quite wide enough to claim as 9/8 (shame!). The wedge took some work with greaseless compound on the bench grinder, but the CHG is all hand sanding with micro-mesh from 1500 grit through the progressions to 12000. Some patina left on it, but being hollow ground the blade edge is delicate and I didn't want to lose any width to the greaseless - hence the hand sanding only. Both were honed on Naniwa's - 1, 2, 5, 8 and 12k.

Also shown below is my first attempt at custom horn scales. I have a lovely little Wade & Butcher 6/8 hollow ground square point, but it was clothed in some contemporary black plastic scales. I decided to try my hand at scale making and get this really nice blade into something more authentic. Started with a single 160x60x3mm blank of blonde coloured buffalo horn. Hand cut it with a coping saw, then shaped with medium grit sandpaper, and finished with wet and dry (240,400,600,800,1200,2000) then white rouge on the buffer. The wedge is camel bone. I'm really really happy with how they turned out for a first attempt, and very pleasantly surprised that it didn't take too many hours - particularly as there was no machinery involved whatsoever - All done hand.

:-)

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Beautiful work! and thank you for the equally-attractive narrative.

Beautiful work...the W&B's are my favorites as well, and those are stunning blades!

Obviously, those are three that got away from me....darn!;)

Your scales are very impressive especially for a first attempt. I actually prefer your pins and washers to the two bigger blades.

Very nicely done!! I love W&B's as well. Awesome work indeed. :rock:

Nice!!
There's a thread going about making triple stacked washers - how'd you make yours?

Thank you all for your kind comments.

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Originally Posted by UKRob

Your scales are very impressive especially for a first attempt. I actually prefer your pins and washers to the two bigger blades.

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Thanks Rob, greatly appreciated. I hear what you are saying reference the bullseye collars. They are a good imitation, but are bigger than the original little bullseye covers , so look a little ungainly. If I could find small brass washers to triple stack instead I'd gladly use them, but haven't found any. Probably not searching hard enough. I might take them off and sand the bottom tier off the collars, then re-pin them. Might look a little more genuine then.

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Originally Posted by RoyalCake

Nice!!
There's a thread going about making triple stacked washers - how'd you make yours?

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Purchased from The Imperial Shave. They make and sell various types. They are very nice and as a single unit piece they are easy to use, but as I just mentioned above, I feel they are a little larger than the genuine item found on W&B and many other vintage razors. I'll have to search out that thread you mention, as I would prefer to use triple stack washers.

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Originally Posted by KrytonsJaw

Purchased from The Imperial Shave. They make and sell various types. They are very nice and as a single unit piece they are easy to use, but as I just mentioned above, I feel they are a little larger than the genuine item found on W&B and many other vintage razors. I'll have to search out that thread you mention, as I would prefer to use triple stack washers.

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Yes, the washers are nice and look great IMO, I have several done like that with brass washers, from traditional 2-pin to custom 3-pin, black and blond horn.

Those are absolutely GORGEOUS!

Well done!

Those are some exceptionally nice blades and the scales are excellent.

I make triple stacks, pm me your address, ill send ya support washers as well ;-)

Ooooohhhhh make me drool they would be RAD killers for me
Awesome looking all round
Loovvee the finish and the washers are spot on would definitely love to have some of them for a couple of W&B I have
Job well done in deed:dropjaw::dropjaw:

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Originally Posted by DennisBarberShop

I make triple stacks, pm me your address, ill send ya support washers as well ;-)

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That would be great, thank you! I just checked out your posts in the workshop thread, and they look amazing.

Very very nice restore, not that I'm a fan of those big heavy blades but hat's off to the Man very well done, the scales plus the bulls eye washers look pretty impressive.

Very nice indeed, look as good as new again.

Very nice!!! Good job

The pinning /washers and wedge is superb! (As is the entire package(s). Now that's a man's razor!

Now those are some beautiful WB's!I love the hand-sanding job, and the horn scales with bulls-eye collars look stunning.

Great work. :chapeau
How did you do the satin finish on the scales ?

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Great work. :chapeau
How did you do the satin finish on the scales ?

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1+! They look cool as can be! Nice Work!:nj

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Great work. :chapeau
How did you do the satin finish on the scales ?

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

1+! They look cool as can be! Nice Work!:nj

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By cheating I am afraid!! The scales needed epoxy in a couple of areas to fix cracks, and prevent further ones developing around the grain of the horn. After I have sanded the epoxy, I spray the scales with matt black enamel paint. Sand some more around the epoxy areas, re-spray, and then apply a couple of coats of matt lacquer (also from a spray can). The finish is durable, and I love the look. I have no doubt that this method is probably seen as a cop out by a lot of restorers! But I wouldn't do them any other way myself - simply because I don't like the idea of visible epoxy fixes.

That said, now that I know I am capable of making custom horn scales, I am going to re-scale the 9/8 wedge in some authentic W&B black buffalo horn.

Very nice. Great work!

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Originally Posted by KrytonsJaw

By cheating I am afraid!! The scales needed epoxy in a couple of areas to fix cracks, and prevent further ones developing around the grain of the horn. After I have sanded the epoxy, I spray the scales with matt black enamel paint. Sand some more around the epoxy areas, re-spray, and then apply a couple of coats of matt lacquer (also from a spray can). The finish is durable, and I love the look. I have no doubt that this method is probably seen as a cop out by a lot of restorers! But I wouldn't do them any other way myself - simply because I don't like the idea of visible epoxy fixes.

That said, now that I know I am capable of making custom horn scales, I am going to re-scale the 9/8 wedge in some authentic W&B black buffalo horn.

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It's tough to get a good match with fillers. If the finish is durable,as you say, I can't see any problems & it still looks good.

1+ again! The look is smooth. VERY smooth! :nj

Wow, absolutely fantastic work.

Stu