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  1. #1
    Senior Member Joe Edson's Avatar
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    Default W&B in Horn - From Total Trash to Treasure

    I recently picked up a 40 straight lot on eBay of which I kept about half and resold the others in a lot that were either too small for my preference or required too much restoration work.

    You might ask then, why'd I keep this one?

    I wanted to see if I could take something that I probably wouldn't even pay $5 for in an antique store and turn it into something special. This W&B was in that lot and met my requirements for being rusted completely over with sever pitting everywhere and a large enough grind that I could remove a lot of metal and that pitting.

    After 15 minutes on 80 greaseless I almost just gave up, but pressed on (wish I would have taken a picture at this point when the rust was off to show how much pitting there was). Anyway, I spent a good 1.5 hours on 80 greaseless and overall about 3 hours on the blade to bring it up to a mirror. No pitting remains anywhere except for a small portion on the tang. I think I only lost about 1/16" also as it went from a 7/8 to a 13/16 at the widest point. I was also as careful as possible to try to keep the tang stamp intact and only lost part of the "Wade", but kept most of the "Manufactured", "Butcher" and "Sheffield"

    I was shocked at the transformation and decided to give it a new set of black horn scales with a brass lined black micarta wedge.

    I honed this up last night and finished it on my newest HAD addition - a frankonian hone for olivia seife. The shave was one of my best. Not sure if it was the W&B steel or the Frankonian, but I was impressed. This sucker is definitely staying in my shave den for a long time.

    Feels good to take something that could be relegated to the trash and turn it into one of my most impressive shavers.

    Anyway, here are the pics.

    Before:



    After:




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    dirtychrome (12-29-2010)

  3. #2
    Senior Member mrbhagwan's Avatar
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    Default

    Man! You took that one all the way from "ow" to "WOW!"

    Nicely done! Enjoy those shaves.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  5. #3
    This is not my actual head. HNSB's Avatar
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    Nice transformation!

    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  7. #4
    Senior Member johnmrson's Avatar
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    Very nice restore. I love reading about old blades that are saved from the scrap heap.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  9. #5
    Senior Member MileMarker60's Avatar
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    Great save. Should make a fine shaver.
    I've cleaned up a few old sheffields like that and always amazed at how well a nice wedged blade can clean up (most of the time)

    Again great job.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  11. #6
    Senior Member Stropper's Avatar
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    That one must have taken some serious sanding time before it got to the buffer. Both blade and scales are outstanding.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  13. #7
    senior member Zomax's Avatar
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    The sense of accomplishment when you take a junk blade into a fantastic razor is amazing, isn't it? After a number of years you can trash the scales and make new ones and you have a whole new razor but the pride of that blade lives on.
    Congrats on a great job!

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  15. #8
    Senior Member Joe Edson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HNSB View Post
    Nice transformation!
    Thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by johnmrson View Post
    Very nice restore. I love reading about old blades that are saved from the scrap heap.
    Thanks John! Like the old saying goes - "One mans junk is another mans treasure"

    Sad thing is before this I would have thought this blade junk and now it is my treasure.

    Quote Originally Posted by MileMarker60 View Post
    Great save. Should make a fine shaver.
    I've cleaned up a few old sheffields like that and always amazed at how well a nice wedged blade can clean up (most of the time)

    Again great job.
    Yeah, this was a learning experience that is sure. I've generally shied away from sheffield razors for personal use as I've always found french or swedish razors to be better for my face.

    After honing this sucker up and shaving though I'm thinking that I need to have another look at sheffield steel.

    Thanks for the compliments.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stropper View Post
    That one must have taken some serious sanding time before it got to the buffer. Both blade and scales are outstanding.
    I did it all on the buffer, just spent a long, long time using 80 grit greaseless compound.

    Thanks for the compliments. This is my third set of horn scales and I think they are my best so far. Really love the way it turned out.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zomax View Post
    The sense of accomplishment when you take a junk blade into a fantastic razor is amazing, isn't it? After a number of years you can trash the scales and make new ones and you have a whole new razor but the pride of that blade lives on.
    Congrats on a great job!
    The sense of accomplishment indeed!

    To be honest I was just going to see if I could clean this up reasonably, slap it in some old scales I had around and throw it on eBay.

    Once started and seeing that I could remove most the pitting and after being completely done with the blade I said no way. This sucker is getting a brand new set of horn scales and going to the grave with me.

    Thanks for the compliments!

  16. #9
    Str8 & Loving It BladeRunner001's Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    Wowwwww Joe ...I can't believe the before and after...Nice rescue

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

  18. #10
    Senior Member blabbermouth JimmyHAD's Avatar
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    Looks outstanding and +1 on the before and after photos. The contrast really brings home what a great job you did.
    Be careful how you treat people on your way up, you may meet them again on your way back down.

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    Joe Edson (12-24-2010)

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