Thread: W&B Standard Wedge restore.

Magnum Bonum:



Magnum Bonum of a friend of mine:

https://instagram.com/p/BXhWqBLlAjd/
https://instagram.com/p/BVGxfChljw4/
https://instagram.com/p/BUFd9byFtAd/


Sure looks like one to me as well, great razor and a beautiful restoration!

Nice work, Zak. I appreciate your 'sympathetic' restorations (as Neil Miller would say!) in leaving a bit of patina and character as well as saving original components as-possible.

It is quite inspiring to see you get down to working on some of these beauties.
Seems things must be in order to find the time!

Originally Posted by ovidiucotiga

Wasn't that a Magnum Bonum blade?...sure looks like it from the shape and the tang writings... great razor!

Nope! It's the most standard W&B blade shape I've seen. I have 4 or 5 of them in the same pattern, just none quite so large. And well, I don't have any quite so large since I sold this one.

Originally Posted by Srdjan

Magnum Bonum:



Magnum Bonum of a friend of mine:

https://instagram.com/p/BXhWqBLlAjd/
https://instagram.com/p/BVGxfChljw4/
https://instagram.com/p/BUFd9byFtAd/


Sure looks like one to me as well, great razor and a beautiful restoration!

That's a later Magnum Bonum (later in this case means after 1820). Before 1820, it was a recognizable blade style:



The etching on this style is on the top of the spine, which is square rather than quill profile:



After 1820 or so, it was just a marketing slogan that got etched on the blade face and wasn't associated with any particular blade shape. Here's one from James Crawshaw:



Interestingly, during the time of the original Magnum Bonum (1805-1820), the same blade shape but scaled down to 'portable razor' size was etched 'Ne Plus Ultra'. By the late 1820's, that slogan was also on the blade face, but usually on big razors rather than small ones.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Nice work, Zak. I appreciate your 'sympathetic' restorations (as Neil Miller would say!) in leaving a bit of patina and character as well as saving original components as-possible.

It is quite inspiring to see you get down to working on some of these beauties.
Seems things must be in order to find the time!

Thanks Tom! That's high praise coming from you!

There were two things that precipitated me getting back to it.

1) Having my workshop fully set up and operational (which involved burning out the old motor on my drill press and replacing it)
2) Wanting to sell off some of my giant pile of 'to sell' items so I can afford a couple big-ticket toys.

But, well... I've now done significant restorations on 3 razors, and only one of them was to sell. I had sort of intended to sell both the Shepherd and the Roberts, but by the time I was done with them, I couldn't give'em up. It's a lot easier for me to part with Wade & Butcher razors since I've got a bunch of them!

And I've got a For Barber's Use to keep forever and ever as soon as I get around to making proper scales for it -- the originals were entirely missing the wedge end.

Now I just need to make a good dust collection system. The last time I took my bike out, once it was in direct sun (which doesn't happen at my house, as I live in a permanent fog zone), it had a fine layer of sparkly razor dust. Because I have apparently become the razor fairy, waving my magic (abrasive) wand and displacing a few milligrams of corroded steel.

Very nice restoration, turned out a beauty job on that! Thanks for the details about the process.

Nice work. What did you use to dye the scales? Hair dye, leather dye?

Very nice indeed.

Originally Posted by karlej

Nice work. What did you use to dye the scales? Hair dye, leather dye?

Hair dye. Leather dye may also work (they're both forms of keratin), but it's easy to find the dark brown hair dye that matches old scales. Black is a little too black, you can see that it's a teeny, tiny bit darker than the black of old scales.