Butler " William Shakespeare"

This razor came in rather sad shape. But it's pretty cool and so I did what I could to try and salvage it.
The blade cleaned up rather well, all things considered. The scales, a bit rough cleaned up nicely . I kept it all original though saving the script was a challenge. I could only go so far to remove the rust/ pitting/ scratches but the Bard will live on.

Attachment 120645Attachment 120646Attachment 120649Attachment 120648Attachment 120647Attachment 120652Attachment 120651Attachment 120650Attachment 120653Attachment 120654

I wouldn't think those were the same scales! Excellent work!

It always amazes me how nicely these old scales clean up. They look like they're ready for the scrap heap at times but a few minutes of sanding and a polish and off they go looking like new.

What do you polish them with? I've got stuff to polish plastics, but have no idea what might be used to polish horn.

Nice piece. I had a Thomas Turner years ago, that had "Sharper Than A Serpents Tooth", from King Lear, engraved on the blade. No pic of Shakespeare though.

I just wish it hadn't been attacked with some 36 grit before it fell into my lap. That limited its chances.
I wonder how many others with cool scripts are out there,, let alone how many are long gone.

The scales seem happy with 220 to remove divots etc... then up to 500, then off to the buffer with some rouge,, maybe some white followed with something like Mag polish or cleaner waxes you might have.
Sure beats the soak 'em in some oil alternative.

Somewhere in my archives I have a sequence of shots showing a ratty scale, then sanded, then buffed and an oiled section all on one scale. I can dig it up if you like. If I can't find it I have plenty around to do it again.

Yeah that would be cool to see. I've got access to a buffer and rouge, add mag cleaner here at home. So I'll be in business. I've got a set I want to polish up.

These aren't the exact files I was looking for but you can see some new horn scales sanded and coming to life as well as an old set that has been sanded and refreshed with some polishing.
I also just did another razor today where I built some wedgeless Honey Horn scales and the process is covered there as well.
I'll keep looking through a few thousand photos ( I'm not kidding) and see if I can't find the exact ones I was thinking of.
Worse comes to worse I'll just do another example for you.
With this razor I was chronicling building an exact duplicate of a set of W&B scales down to the last detail. But you can see on the old scale how with some sanding and buffing they can look darn good.

Attachment 120688Attachment 120687Attachment 120689Attachment 120690Attachment 120691
Attachment 120692Attachment 120696Attachment 120693Attachment 120694Attachment 120695

They look really good! I'm all inspired now!