Wade&Butcher Chopper-Chipped to Cherished

[dirtychrome]

This Wade and Butcher is stamped “The Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor” on blade face.

I did the rescale with dark translucent horn. Predominantly black, with streaking of honey, brown and gray. Barley transparent enough you can see the wedge and tang at the pivot in the right light.

Bone wedge, brass triple washers with brass pin. With the brass triple washers, center washer is custom sized. Sleeved the razor’s pivot to have tight, centered movement.

Sanded up to 12000 with MicroMesh, and then brought through the buffers. The bone and horn both really glow.

The blade is now 15/16 at its widest. I didn’t get to see the before shape of the blade. I was advised it came from an antique store and originally was chipped and black in the originally found condition.

The razor's owner sent me the 'before' image, and he's the one that did the blade work. He had already cleaned off the majority of the black stuff when he took this shot. He said "two tubes of Maas", lol. You still get a feel for some of the original condition, I think.

Something my 'after' pics don't show, is the detail on the blade face. The etching is still deep. The striations from the original grinding are still nicely defined.

I think this is a good example when clean up, of the steel, sometimes by hand is an advantage. If power tools were used(dremmel/buffer) a lot of that detail would have gone away. Nice all that didn't get polished away during the clean up.

I think often guys just learning clean up, worry that they don't have the right tools (read "power tools"). Patience and determination are often valuable assets, to have at hand.

Between the chips and black blade, many may have passed over this one. Nice to see he cared enough to save this bit of history.

Many more full size images here if wanted
Wade and Butcher

[Earthdawn]

WOW !!!

What a turn-around. Not what I expected to see as I paged down.

The blade came out amazing especially seeing the before pics of where you started. The scales are just perfect. They match up to that blade perfectly IMO. The pinning is a stunner as well. I love when the extra care to the pins shine through.

Well done.. very well done.

New life to a truly worthy razor!

[Maxi]

This razor is amazing. I love everything about it. The big ol' W&B blade, the horn, the wedge....awesome restore. Just plain awesome!

[Havachat45]

Absolutely beautiful!! Well done.

[TopCat]

I think the original bladesmith would be quite impressed with the amazing care and respect given to his creation nearly a century and a half later!

[silks]

Holy Smokes! That is BEAUTIFUL! Excellent work. Thank you for sharing.

[onimaru55]

Beautiful job. Better than new , no doubt

[Hirlau]

Quality steel, given a second chance.
Great work!

[WBK]

Wow, a real beauty! I've got one of these blades sitting in my "to do" bin. Now I really want to get to it!

[TDITim]

How in the world did you get the blade that shiny and clean? What are the steps I must know