Thread: Wade & Butcher medium hollow rehandled in Olive

Thanks Red! I haven't finished honing the razor yet, but I hope to shave with it either tonight or tomorrow morning. After shaving with it I should have a better idea as to whether 20 lines per inch is enough. (I bought the file to put thumb grooves on knives, but the W&B was the first time I've actually used it.)

Someone asked me how I cleaned up the razor, yet still kept the dark lettering. Actually I didn't; I cleaned off the coloring, then put it back later.

I used a vibratory tumbler, various grits of abrasive paper, and a buffing wheel to clean up the blade. By that time, any coloring was gone from the lettering. I didn't like that, so I used a Birchwood Casey Presto Gun Blue Pen to blue/blacken the lettering. (The link is to Cheaperthandirt, but you can get them at sporting goods and hardware stores.) Of course it gets on the blade around the lettering too, so I used 2000 grit paper to gently remove the excess. The 2000 grit worked pretty well, but it leaves a bit of a mat finish on the otherwise polished blade. It looks pretty good, but I may try some 2500 grit next time. After cleaning up the lettering, I used Windex with Ammonia-D to (hopefully) neutralize any left over bluing solution.

Very nicely done Christopher! Love the wood and your eye for detail.

Beautiful work!!

FYI, the thanks from me was in large part due to your putting direct hyperlinks to the things you used, I thought that was very cool.

Red

Great job.
Nice attention to detail with the bluing pen.
I've used a whittled down toothpick in the past but not any more.

You might like the Micromesh cushioned abrasives for cleanup. Micro Mesh

They come in a large range of grits & can usually match most blade finishes.

Nice work I like the way the grain lines up on both scales.

Thanks for the knowledge on both the checkering file and the blueing pen.

have some rep for making me smarter

Charlie

I shaved with the razor this morning. The jimping did make it much easier to hold than my razors that have none. Comparing my jimping to the factory jimping on some of my other razors, I would have to say that the 40 lines per inch is more aesthetically pleasing, but mine provides better purchase. However, this may be just because my lines are cut more deeply. As a compromise, I am considering getting a 30 line per inch checkering file and giving that a try.

These are the razors I used to compare jimps. As you can see, the factory jimps are neater, shallower, and more closely spaced.






My home made ones are deeper and further apart.

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, this is what the Wade & Butcher in this thread looked like when I got it from eBay.

As an aside, is it possible that they used real gold for the pins on this razor? I wouldn't think they would on a razor with celluloid/plastic scales, but I was surprised at how brightly colored the metal was when I cut into them. A much brighter yellow/gold than any of the brass I have cut in the past.