Thread: old English blades?

I'm a somewhat new se shaver who has been doing pretty well with the learnig curve thus far. I just picked up Bill's new restoration disk and have been looking through the recent eBay listings. What's the general opinion on the old Wade & Butcher bow razors that appear to be in good shape such as:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Wade-But...QQcmdZViewItem

My sharpening arsenal consistes of a 4k/8k Norton on order and a 4-sided pasted strop from Tony.

Another similar possibility is an old Wostenholm

http://cgi.ebay.com/OLD-CELEBRATED-W...QQcmdZViewItem


I'm thinking about picking up something like one of the above 2, and possibly if it turns out to be a good shaver, contacting Garythepenman for one of his nice wooden scales.

In the very short-term, my plan is to pick up some good "practice eBay specials" to try out various abrasive and polishing techniques from Bill's cd and learn the Norton when it arrives.

They are both good choices. I favor the first one because it looks to be in better shape. It's also a little harder to restore. Patience is a must on that one.

Also have patience getting one. They still come up all the time. Unless they have already been restored and are ready to shave, I wouldn't invest more than $40 in one of these unless availability really dries up.

Hope you get a lot out of the cd...

I noticed those two as well. The wedge will present a few more issues not only for restoration, but also for honing if you plan to do that yourself. I like my Sheffield blades a LOT!!!

X

My best shaver is a Sheffield piece, but it's a full hollow grind. You may find it familiar, X For those of you n00bs, X was the one who got my first and best piece in the rotation shave-ready. Since then, I got a few others to shave and took this one back to the hone a few times for touchups, and it still outperforms anything else I have in my rotation.

I took Bill's advice and exercised some patience as the first item listed above went for $41 plus $7 shipping = $48. Interestingly, the same piece (same picture anyway)went for $72 plus shipping a few weeks ago. Thanks Bill.

No rush on my part as I'm getting more and more interested in restoration and there is no end to choose from for under $15.

DAMMIT! I didn't notice that! Sorry schatz, I didn't realize that was a razor you were interested in, I was just surfing ebay after losing a bid on a razor I *really* wanted, and saw this a few minutes before it closed and snapped it up, didn't even recognize the picture as a duplicate from last week, despite being the winner on the razor last week. It was a great razor, not shave-ready but that only took a few minutes to fix, and with just a little bit of surface corrosion in the tail (this was the razor in the "smiling edges" thread. Yeah I paid too much but I was in the throes of the W&B disease, having just gotten a beaut from Joe Chandler and another from papabull.

Oh well, this one should be here in a few days so I can see what I actually bought, and decide if it's worth taking it up with ebay.

Don't be the least concerned about bidding on something you see me interested in as there is plenty out there for my new and very small collection. In any event, I wasn't going to invest more than $40 (per Bill's advice), which given the shipping of $7, meant a bid of $33 on this one.

Hopefully, you will be happy with the razor and there will be no need to contact eBay.

Thanks for thinking of me.

FWIW, the seller of that blade, Ann Hansen aka "raggedyannsemporium" of Madison WI, has been NARU'd by eBay. She had agreed to buy the razor back, with refund of shipping both ways, but this was before being NARU'd. I'm trying to get ahold of her to get her to uphold the deal, but there's not a lot I can hold over her head at this point if she kicks. If she won't take it back I think I'll get the blade cleaned up and see about donating it to the newbie bag.

While searching eBay today I found a large W&B hollow ground in good shape with a barber notch and a 3-pin carbon fiber scale which I decided to purchase using the "buy it now" option. I never saw a carbon file scale on a SE razor (more common on knives) but it looked like an interesting mix of the new and the old. Should be here in a few days.

item 170019760148

My original plan was to look for a similar 7/8 in a concave and probably switch out the scales to wood or horn. As I'm very much a newbie with regard to honing, it was suggested (maybe by X) that I stay clear of the wedges for awhile. I guess those will be next.

By the way, does anybody know the extent of the hollow grounds (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full) in these early razors?

They vary from full hollow to full wedge and everything in between.

X