7 Attachment(s)
Wade & Butcher in Cow Horn - First Customization
I'd been on the lookout for a W&B to add to my regular rotation for a while. I particularly favour mid-late 1800's blades erring to the low numbers in Henckels' spectrum so was very happy to see this come up on eBay:)
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As you can see the scales were not at their best so needed sorting. I've restored a few razors but had not yet had a go at customizing so decided to try something different for the scales.
As I like the look of variagated cowhorn and didn't have any razors in said material I ordered some up and got on with the blade while considering on scale style.
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The pitting on the blade was pretty severe tho' apart from a small nick the edge wasn't in too bad condition. I sanded from 120 grit as much as I could without being too detrimental to the engraving then graduated up through to 2500 grit.
As the pitting was still fairly serious I then cut back the faces with 600 grit (with oil) to give a more satin finish so it didn't look too of place with remaining pitting. The spine, tang and monkey tail were left with a high-polish.
The original scales were fairly large and it's a chunky blade so I decided to stick with this theme and give it pretty beefy scales.
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I drew out a stencil from the original scales then played around with it a bit to get the shape I wanted. After initial sanding to flatten and start finishing (from 60 to 320 grit) I cut the scales out with a fretsaw. The scales were then finish-shaped using second-cut then fine half-round files. This was followed by a LOT of sanding up to 2500 grit followed by a hand polish then quick buff. During sanding I was careful to avoid bevelling the scale edges to maintain a blocky look.
The scales are a hefty 3.5mm thick, luckily the blade had a pretty pivot large hole allowing continuation of the big feel by use of 3/32" rod for the rivets (with 8BA washers).
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For a relatively subtle contrast I used some honey coloured horn for the wedge.
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I did a few final touch-ups to finish the razor this morning and gave the scales a quick rub down with neatsfoot oil and beeswax before taking the final photos. I'm very pleased with the results, razor opens and closes nice and cleanly with plenty of friction to stay open. The blade has been honed (taped to set the bevel on a 1k stone, progressed through 3k, 6k, 8k then finished on a Thuringian).
After posting this I'm off to give it a few more laps on the Thuringian and strop ready for road testing tomorrow:rock:
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