A seldom seen early Wm. Stenton

A Wm. Stenton 11/16 near wedge with a fancy arris spine and upper and lower jimps. The glaze finished blade faces and crocus finished spine and tang contrast nicely. The GR sovereign stamp dates the razor 1820 to 1830. Tweedale's Directory has him working for Naylor & Sanderson from 1820 to 1829. The broken original black horn scales were copied in honey horn thinned to .110 thickness along with a lead wedge and brass pins and collars. The in work picture is off the 400 grit belt and the bevel set on a 1K.
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Very nice redo. Looks great!

:tu:tu:tu

Bob

Fantastic razor and restoration.

Pete <:-}

I do love that Square spine, they are unique.
You did a blinding job on that. Well done.

Beautiful work. You restored a similar Wm. Stenton for me several years ago and it remains one of my favorites. Scales compliment the big blade nicely.

Amazing restore. That blade looks as if it just came new from the manufacturer.

Great restore. GR stamped razors are not that common. Definitely one for the collection.

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Originally Posted by ajkenne

Beautiful work. You restored a similar Wm. Stenton for me several years ago and it remains one of my favorites. Scales compliment the big blade nicely.

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I had to look that one up. Yours was a Wm. Stenton & Son. A bigger blade too. Late 1830's when & Son was added. The only history I have on him is in Tweedale's Directory. Lists him with Naylor & Sanderson in the 1920's until the company was reorganized in 1929. He was then briefly partnered with George Wostenholm & Sons until 1931. I'm not sure when he started making razors under his name. Maybe a brief period before he went to work for Naylor & Sanderson. If Voidmonster is lurking out there maybe he knows more about Stenton's early history. When working for Naylor & Sanderson he was known as 'Devil Stenton'. A quote from Tweedale's. It was said that the imprecations uttered against him by the cutlers were loud, bitter and deep from the manner in which they were treated by him. Guess he was not the nicest of sorts.

Impeccable work as always, Karl-That's a real beauty, with quite a beefy spine!

Outstanding Job Karlej!

Nicely done.

Did they taper the whole blade from the spine at the toe end to the tail? I’ve been trying to make one and got off track as I’ve never handled one. The geometry I ended up with is similar to post 1850’s Sheffield’s with a stub tail profile.

Wow, that is absolutely stunning! Can I ask what your process was for restoring the blade? All hand sanding? What grits did you end up using? Any buffing?

Thank you for sharing this!

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Originally Posted by jfk742

Nicely done.

Did they taper the whole blade from the spine at the toe end to the tail? I’ve been trying to make one and got off track as I’ve never handled one. The geometry I ended up with is similar to post 1850’s Sheffield’s with a stub tail profile.

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I no longer have the razor so I am unable to make any measurements. I believe the spine width is even until it reaches the tang where it tapers down to the tail. The blade however tapers from 11/16 at the toe to 5/8 at the heal.

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Originally Posted by ppetresen

Wow, that is absolutely stunning! Can I ask what your process was for restoring the blade? All hand sanding? What grits did you end up using? Any buffing?

Thank you for sharing this!

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I use a 2 x 72 grinder. The hard wheel allows me to keep all the blade details and the stamps crisp. I started this blade at 220 grit and went to 600 grit. The glazed blade face is achieved with a 4 inch sisal wheel and Janz LA 348 cut and color compound. The spine and tang were polished on a hard 4 inch cotton wheel with Jantz LA855 Black Magic for the crocus type finish.

What a great looking razor and an outstanding restore, as usual.

great job on that one. love the look