Wade & Butcher medium hollow rehandled in Olive

Greetings everyone,

Here is an eBay razor that I rust finished cleaning up and putting a new handle on. While I was cleaning up the blade, I decided to add my own jimping with a checkering file. I think it will give me a better grip while shaving.

The original scales were in good shape, but since they were just black plastic, I decided to try making my own handle. The new scales are Olive, and the wedge is Cocobolo. Instead of pins, I used barrel pivots with button head torx screws.

I still need to hone the razor, but I thought it would be safer to take pictures beforehand.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-01.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-02.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-03.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-05.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-07.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...m-Olive-09.jpg

That looks great,love that olive wood,nice job.Hey.I never thought about adding jimps,that's a great idea.Would you mind elaborating on it?How did you get the spacing right?How about depth?Did you just eyeball it?If so you did a great job.

I used a checkering file that I got from MidwayUSA. The files are designed to give evenly spaced lines in steel. I seem to recall reading that jimps are supposed to be 40 lines per inch, but the only checkering file I have has 20 lines per inch, so that's what I used. I was surprised to find how soft the steel was where I put the checkering. That made the job pretty easy. To make the jimping wider than the file, you just overlap a few rows and cut some more. As for the depth, I just eyeballed it, but I don't think you can really cut deeper that the teeth on the file. Once I was done, I sanded the jimps lightly so they weren't quite so sharp.

http://www.midwayusa.com/midwayusa/s...res/187003.jpg

Thank you.I'd never seen one before.My questions sound sorta dopey now!

I too had no idea that's how you could do it. Thank you.

How did you manage to keep the file straight while you did it? It looks like it was made that way, so great job! The scales are beautiful too!:tu

Thanks! I just clamped it in a vise and eyeballed it. I also worked from both sides of the tang, to hopefully minimize any out of perpendicular lines. It seemed to help. I suppose could hold a parallel against the razor is you really wanted to square things up.

Nice razor, Sir! :tu:tu

X

that's awesome!! I love the way you did the jimps. one gripe I really have on some of the customs I've seen is that they are doing it obviously one row at a time you can tell because the spacing isn't perfect and the depth isn't consistent. this looks great. I'm thinking about ordering one of these tonight. I think the 20lpi worked out great, would you say you should have gone higher or that feels/looks good?

Red

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.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ctd_i...prod/23401.jpg

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

:tu

Beautiful work!! :tu

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. :D

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.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...vo-jimping.jpg


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...rs-notch-3.jpg

My home made ones are deeper and further apart.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ve-jimping.jpg

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.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...e-with-B-2.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...e-with-B-1.jpg

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.

I don't think the pins would be gold considering they look a little dull in the 'before' pics. Possibly more manganese in the mix :shrug:

Dude, the restore is fantastic... those over sized jimps give the razor an "aggressive look", not to mention better grip.

Compared to your W&B, the jimps on the other razors look like... decoration.

Beautiful grain-matching on the olive scales. Very skillful woodwork! I'm impressed.

I like it! Congrats on your new razor :)

I will keep that bluing pen in mind.

Great Resto! I've never used the barrel pivots. Did you have to do any modification to get them to work or did you just use them stock?

Looking at the comparison photo's of the jimps, i much prefer yours. They look like you'd get better grip. Got to get one of those files & try to keep it's use under control or there'll even be jimps on the cutlery! Great looking razor. I think I prefer propper pinning, but the fasteners do have some advantages.

Thanks guys!

The only modifications I had to do to install the barrel pins was to re-drill the holes in the razors' tangs. The barrels would fit into the holes, but I discovered that the holes were out of round and not perpendicular to the tang. I used a 1/8" carbide drill bit, but the tangs are so soft that a regular bit would probably work. I also had to shorten a couple of the torx head screw so that I could snug them up tightly. The 2-56 pan head screws fit right into the 1/8" hole I made in the handles. Also, while you can't really see barely see them in my photos, I installed Nylatron washers on either side of the tangs.

As for the grain matching, I just took a piece of Olive wood that I bought at Woodcraft and bandsawed it into stips. I then used double sided tape to stick the strips together while I cut them out, drilled the holes, and then sanded them to shape. That way, I'm sure to get the grain to line up.

I tried to take some photos of the original pins that I asked about. I couldn't get a real good focus on one, but this is the best I got. I buffed the pin lightly, and the black crap on it is left over from the stuff that had accumulated in the tang/pin hole.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ored-pin-2.jpg

If you're interested, here's the link to a John S. Holler & Co. razor that I'm finishing up. It re-handled it the same way as I did this Wade & Butcher.

Hmm does look more goldy than brassy :)

Thanks for showing us those files, ill have to get me one of those one day.

+B

I *love* those mongo jimps!

Very nice restore. You inspire me to buy more stuff! ;)