Thread: Wade & Butcher for Barber's Use -for my Barber

Greetings,

Here's one that I just finished up for my Barber. I tried to keep it looking fairly original, so I didn't grind the pits out of the blade or polish it up. I cleaned off the crap, then etched it in white vinegar. I replaced the broken scales with new horn, nickle silver pins, and stainless steel bulls eye collars (from the Imperial Shave). I kept the original wedge, which I believe is lead. The razor honed up nicely, and I think it was the flattest Wade & Butcher I've honed yet.

Before:





After:

very nice.
Paul

Nice job, the big W&B razors shave really well.

Great job, your barber is a lucky man.

Nice work! Your barber must be fantastic

Thanks guys! My Barber is a good man. People keep giving him old razors for free, and he then lets me pick among them and keep any I like. He won't take any money, so I've restored three or four for him in return for his generosity. He also gives a good haircut.

Great job! Keeping it as original as possible was a great way to go.

Thanks everyone! The last time Lou was showing me the razors people had just given him, I offered to fix up the Wade & Butcher and a Joseph Rodgers & Sons for him. For myself, I selected a Bechon-Basmaison razor. I like the shape, and I'd never heard of this brand before.

The Rodgers didn't need much work to make it serviceable, so that's all I did to it. A bit of buffing and a good honing, and it ended up sharp as a razor. I did un-pin it to buff the blade, and you may notice that I forgot to put washers on with the new pins. Dooh!

Before:





After:

The Bechon-Basmaison was in the worse shape of the three by far. I reground this blade, but it was starting to look like the blade would be worn down to a 3/8 before I'd get out all of the pits. I didn't want to ruin the razor, so I let some of the pits remain. I polished the blade in my tumbler and then etched it in vinegar. Initially, it looked pretty good. That was a few weeks ago, and it's now starting to look yellowish (like rust), so I'll have to rework it.

I had intended to reuse the plastic scales, but as I was sanding them tonight I discovered that one of them has a piece of metal imbedded in it. Since I found the metal by removing plastic, I'll have to assume that it got into the mold when they poured the plastic. I have a new set of scales in the works, and I may have the razor completed by tomorrow. I'll post it when it's done.

This is how the razor looked when I got it:





Here's one showing the imbedded metal (if you look close, you'll notice the tip of it in photo 2):

great work on the first one.. i like that you etched it in vinegar after cleaning it up.. makes it all cozy looking. the horn looks very nice.