Thread: Wade & Butcher 6/8 hollow Heirloom restore

This is for our very own SRP member Seminole, this is what he sent me, his Grandfather's Wade & Butcher.. The scales were thrashed and the razor was in OK shape just needed some TLC...





I did a full polish to mirror on the blade with greaseless compounds starting at 80 grit then up through 120-180-320-400-600 then I switched to polishing compounds in Emory -SS- Chrome - and finished with Turtle Wax Polishing Compound...

The pivot hole was oversize so it got a brass sleeve, sorry the pics didn't come out as well as I had hoped for, but you can still make it out...





I made scales out of the Amethyst acrylic and used a white acrylic wedge to tie in the TCU colors for Seminole I know we didn't discuss the wedge so I used Google to find the schools colors... Hope you like that choice... The pins are bi-metal stacked bullseye's and I added the 3rd pin...

I love the purple scales and the fact it belonged to his grand dad makes it super special. Great job creating a smile on our faces Glen.

Love those scales! Lottsa nice custom touches on this one G

Very nice! Not a terribly common color, but I really like it.

It looks as though you have rounded and smoothed the area on the spine that has been flattened by honing. I have seen a few razors that had wear like this, maybe a bit more aggressive, and passed on them. Does that do anything to throw off your angle when honing the blade, or can you just compensate for the lack of thickness by applying tape? I am just trying to grasp what makes a blade salvageable for use and what makes it a paperweight. Is it possible for an old blade to have so much wear on the spine that you can't hone it properly? Or am I overplotting this?

Gorgeous scales, as always, Glen! I bet Seminole is going to be very happy!

The more I watch your stuff the more I like it...love those scales!

Originally Posted by blockhead

It looks as though you have rounded and smoothed the area on the spine that has been flattened by honing. I have seen a few razors that had wear like this, maybe a bit more aggressive, and passed on them. Does that do anything to throw off your angle when honing the blade, or can you just compensate for the lack of thickness by applying tape? I am just trying to grasp what makes a blade salvageable for use and what makes it a paperweight. Is it possible for an old blade to have so much wear on the spine that you can't hone it properly? Or am I overplotting this?

You are simplifying it...

But in answer to the direct questions
First, the width of the spine has hardly changed from when it came to me... just the contour changed..
Next one I will measure it and see what the real change was...
Second, these razors always need a complete bevel re-set so the two minute changes would offset each other..
Third, You are reading to much into bevel angle, there is actually a thread on here that I started so we could get some real numbers on vintage razors... Personally I have measured angles from 12 -22 degrees... 3M electrical tape changes the angle about .65 degrees on a 6/8 razor so that requires quite a few layers of tape or quite a bit of steel removal to change the angle outside of usable paramerters...

As to what is salvageable, look at the overall contour of the blade too, not just spine wear... and whether the spine wear is even, and the edge is even....
The worst thing is uneven Toe wear, or a Frown, both of those cost steel to fix right...

Hope that helped you...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Hope that helped you...

Absolutely! I would have hated to have grabbed some old Sheffield blades with spine wear or a amall smile and started honing away thinking that they were unsavable. When I first saw the blades that I spoke of, I had been looking at more uniform blades like DD's and Bokers. Thinking that the meaty, slightly less refined (Maybe that is not the correct way to describe them...) WB's and Reynolds were less than perfect was just a newbie mistake. Good thing that I remember where the shop is! Thanks again, I really admire your work. Get ready for plenty of questions from me in the future. I have a nice piece of Padauk and some Osage just begging to be worked into some scales!

It looks beautiful, Glen--I can't wait to see it in person.

Just a word of clarification, the razor originally belonged not to my own grandfather, but to my wife's great grandfather. We had originally thought it had been her grandfather's, but other relatives told us that her grandfather had never shaved with a straight razor but that HIS father, who had also lived in the same house, had been a straight razor shaver--so it had to have been his.

My daughter selected the scale color, both because it is her favorite color, but also because (despite my screen name), I work at TCU. Glen, thanks for doing the detective work to figure out the right color for the wedge--it will be perfect.

Let me just say that I believe my faith in Glen's ability to restore the piece of family history has been more than justified. I hope some day to pass it on to my own son, so that he will be able to use the razor that his great great grandfather shaved with.