Thread: My First Semi-Restoration!

Here I present to you, my Wade and Butcher that I restored about a week ago. I just shipped it out for honing last Friday, so I am hoping it returns to me soon so I can test it out!

Anyways, this was an Ebay purchase for about $25 I believe, and my first W&B. Ever since I learned of the prodigus culter, I've been itching to get my hands on one. While it isn't a biggin' (4/8), I love the fat spine and shoulderless design, it is now one of my favourites!

It was in fairly good condition when I recieved it, just a bit dirty. The scales were in good shape so I didnt remove them, (which is something I have not done before, I thought I'd save that for another time) I just ended up sanding and polishing the blade and then sanding the scales. I had just been hand sanding up to this point and only used my dremel for the polishing. A Joseph Elliot met an early end to a Dremel sanding drum at my hands a few weeks ago, and as a result has made me very hesitant about busting out the power tools!

It went ok; it definitely looks better than it did but I'm far from satisfied. As one is able to see minute striations from the lower grit papers that I wasn't able to remove. I went from like 220-1500, then polishing. Although I ran into some problems such as not being able to locate all the grade of SP, and when I did end up ordering a pack of 800 grit paper it turned out to be coarser than my 600 grit of another brand (3M and Gator respectively).

All in all I had alot of fun and am pretty happy with the result! I would love to here any advice, especially what folks use for their own restorations: sanding progression, brand of sand paper, tools, polishing compounds etc...

Here are the before and after shots:

Before:


After:

Good job man!! Are those new scales or just the other ones polished?

Either way fantastic for your first restore!

Parker

Originally Posted by parkerskouson

Good job man!! Are those new scales or just the other ones polished?

Either way fantastic for your first restore!

Parker

Thanks! They are the originals, I was scared to try and unpin them, so I just did a light sanding then oiling.

Originally Posted by tri33

Thanks! They are the originals, I was scared to try and unpin them, so I just did a light sanding then oiling.

Oh ok. The look ten times better than before!

Good job!

Originally Posted by parkerskouson

Oh ok. The look ten times better than before!

Good job!

Thank you very much!

Originally Posted by tri33

Thank you very much!

You are Welcome!

Very nicely done job of work! Congratulations!
~Richard

That looks fantastic,downside is: you have just contracted an incurable Disease restophilia,bad stuff

Nice work indeed! I've used Flitz on scales; it does a nice job shining them up.

For power tools, I've become fond of the dogs' toenail grinder. It takes all the Dremel goodies, but runs at lower speeds and has a clutch so it doesn't tear out bits of dog when a tuft of hair gets wound around anything. That makes it a good bit harder to damage razors, too.

At the speed a Dremel spins, I'd almost worry about heating the metal far enough to damage the temper. They're great tools, but not for everything.

Originally Posted by Geezer

Very nicely done job of work! Congratulations!
~Richard

Thanks, from a fellow Wisconsinite!

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

That looks fantastic,downside is: you have just contracted an incurable Disease restophilia,bad stuff

Tell me about it!

Originally Posted by roughkype

Nice work indeed! I've used Flitz on scales; it does a nice job shining them up.

For power tools, I've become fond of the dogs' toenail grinder. It takes all the Dremel goodies, but runs at lower speeds and has a clutch so it doesn't tear out bits of dog when a tuft of hair gets wound around anything. That makes it a good bit harder to damage razors, too.

At the speed a Dremel spins, I'd almost worry about heating the metal far enough to damage the temper. They're great tools, but not for everything.

Thank you! Yes I have been worried about ruining the temper also. I probably haven't been as careful as I should have. Altough I've been wondering how it i s too hot? Will the temper be affected if the metal is hot to the touch or does it have to be super hot? I guess my question is: how easy is it to mess up the temper?

I just picked up some polishing compound (and wow, does that stuff do an unbelievable job!!!) and I've noticed the metal heating up alot quicker than anything else, even heavy sanding.

Nevertheless, I wish I had the stuff when I worked on this Wade and Butcher! Here is a picture of the results I've gotten with the polishing compound, the blade is a J.R. Torrey "Our Beauty".