Wade & Butcher "Celebrated" 8/8

Man, this one actually wasn't fun.

There were a lot of decisions no razor guy should ever have to make ...

the pitting was so horrendous that I decided to grind the tang. I'm pretty sure intentionally destroying the manufacturer's stamp bought me a ticket straight to razor hell.

Everything about this razor screamed re-grind me...but...I could not, as these etchings are far too valuable!!!!

What I ended up with is both disappointing and amazing IMO. There is a considerable amount of pitting within the etched area on the blade, but, not very much everywhere else.

I literally had to scrape off giant chunks of grime from the insides of the original scales. There was a crack and a huge chip near the pivot pin, so, i shortened the scales ever so slightly. The scales got a heavy sanding and buffing after I cleaned them for like 45 minutes! The wedge end was never unpinned..and the pins on the pivot end were destroyed so i used a pair from from another W&B Barbers use that I had thats gonna have to be re-scaled completetly.


Anyway -- heres the pics guys. before pic first (as if u can't tell..)

The one thing that makes me feel good about this razor, even though its not perfect is this:


When I acquired it, there was no way anyone would have ever even THOUGHT of touching it to their face, and now, cleaned up, people probably can't wait to.

What a beauty! You did an excellent job in preserving the razor's character and age.

Looks like a lot of sweat went into getting it to where it is...Congrats and good work.

I don't see anything disappointing with that razor. You did a fantastic job preserving the integrity of that razor!
Very, very nice job.

Brad, you did exceedingly well. Lovely razor. Many thanks for sharing.

:tu:tuExcellent job bring that razor back to life. I would be very happy owing and using that straight! Thanks for sharing and enjoy this new shaver. It's one to be proud of!

Ud,

I don't know what you had been through in the course of the day, but you have done a greeeaaat job on that butcher. Looks robust from here !

Thanks for the comments guys.

I don't think I would have the guts to grind off the maker's mark on the tang, but it sure looks good now.

I think you did a great job! who ever would have thought it could look like that without a complete regrind? i'm thoroughly impressed.

Red

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joke1176

I don't think I would have the guts to grind off the maker's mark on the tang, but it sure looks good now.

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after killing the active rust and gunk, i was left with this:

http://www.adrian.edu/~bmaggard/test.JPG

I figured..man...is it worth it? and decided NO!!! : )

One of the many forks in the road of a razor man’s career… remove the tarnish along with the stamp… or etch?
Sacrifice one and spare the other… now that was a good call.

Tang stamps or not, it's still unmistakably a Wade & Butcher.
Nice all over save, scales too.

Where was I when you sold that!!!:gaah:

Red

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I don't see anything disappointing with that razor.

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Nice job, but the only disappointing was the removing of the shank engravings, but if the pitting here was too bad, then you did the right thing.

Nice job on a great razor. Tang engraving may be gone,but the great W&B shave is still there.

Very nice save Brad !!!!!

What did you use though, inquiring minds want to know???

Brad , sweet work , so glad you preserved the etchings


nice one ... Garry

The tang was taken to a belt sander, and ground off a few hard to get areas using an 8" 100grit grinding wheel. All the pitting was ground off completely, entire tang had newly exposed steel when I was finished. It then went through the entire series of greaseless compounds.

For the blade, I used greaseless compounds on a 6" wheel. I spent a huge amount of time using 80grit..but, knowing that the etching held most of the value of the razor, i spent more time on the toe and heel of the razor to get rid of most of the minor pitting. I may have spent 30+ minutes using 80grit on the reverse side of the blade and the toe and heel of the front, and about 2 minutes on the actual etched portion. When I did 120, 180, and 240 grit compounds, again I concentrated on non-etched portions of the blade. When I hit 400, I did the entire blade equally. I wanted the whole blade to have equal shine, even though I had concentrated on removing pitting everywhere but the etched area. with emory and rouges I again did equal time on entire blade.

I ended up with a very readable etching that had a decent amount of pitting around it, but, an acceptable level, and the finish of the etched area matched the finish of the rest of the razor.

I had to literally scrape the gunk off the inside of the scales. There was a large chunk missing on the pivot end on the reverse side scale, and a crack on the front side scale that didn't reach the pivot hole. so, instead of leaving them both, I decided to shorten the scales by 3/16" or so. This made the chip disappear and the crack *almost* disappear. Once cleaned up I hand sanded down with 400, 600, 1500 so there were no rough edges anywhere, and then buffed.

The original washers were complete junk on the pivot end. mangled before they came into my hands... so I took a pair off another W&B For barbers use blade that I had that had cracked scales. They don't match the other pins, but, I still thought it looked decent and better than new ones would have looked.

Nice work Thanks for the rundown, pretty much the exact same plan of attack I would have used too... I was actually thinking that you hand sanded that puppy out and I was going to send you the "strong arm" trophy :)

Very Nice, Looks like you brought another razor back from the grave, LOL & worked your magic-!! Got to love those W&B