Thread: The Butcher Shop

Here's my W&B "Celebrated Hollow Ground".

It is 7/8" broad and quarter to half hollow ground. The blade is quite a massive and heavy piece of metal. Unfotunately the scales are broken near the wedge. The razor can be used without any problems, but I will replace the scales soon. This beauty really deserves it. I paid a ridiculous price of 27€ for this baby.

The happiness about the looks and the price of this razor quickly disappeared as I tried to hone this one. The Spine is not even, the blade lies nit perfectly flat on the hone. Like my other W&B it took hours until I got it into shave ready condition. After an hour on the 1k stone the micro chips on the edge did not go away at all. Getting angry, I breadknifed the edged, removed the chips and dulled the razor completely. Setting an initial bevel took a long time,
I had to use two layers of tape and continously correct the the uneven spine on the hone. On the second day after several hours and finishing the edge on a slate stone with toothpaste slurry, the razor passed the hanging hair test. I stropped it on chroium oxide and leather and enjoyed a great shave the next day.
This razor behaves quite strange. After it's first shave it could not pass the HHT convincingly on every point of the blade. Touching the edge carefully with the skin of my thumb, I would not declare it as shave ready. It doesn't feel blunt, but like after the 1k stone: Sharp but not sharp enough for a good shave. Well the razor drags a little bit whe shaving with the grain, but is extremely close and smooth against the grain. Strange!

Here are some pics:

It also looks like someone reshaped the toe. I've never seen a W&B with that blade shape on the toe. It looks as though someone tried to do a French/Irish point on it. You may still be in the brittle steel as you put it. It certainly sounds like it since it shaved great once then dull after first use.
You might consider sending it off to Lynn or someone closer to you to have it pro honed so they can check the edge under a microscope to check the blade edge as they go.
I still think it can be brought back to be a good razor though.

@gunner777

Maybe my post was a little bit confusing: The razor shaves quite good.
I am sure I did not overhone it or damaged it in any other way. But I agree, that the toe looks strange. I could not manage to create a bevel in the last 4mm at the very end of the blade. Although it passes the HHT not in optimal way and doesn't feel as sharp on my thumb like many of my full hollow ground razors, it shaves quite well. By the way, I don't give much about the HHT and judging the sharpness of the edge by feeling with the skin: My hair is very short and thin, even my best and sharpest razors often have trouble with the HHT. Because of my work, I have very rough and insensitive skin on my hands, too.

As long as ist shaves as close and smooth as it does now, I won't do anything in terms of resharpening. But I consider sending it to a friend of mine here in Germany, who is an expert with old W&Bs. Maybe he could rescale the blade for me and have a look at the bevel under the microscope. If he could see serious signs of mishoning, I'll ask him to re-hone the blade.

This is a beautiful and fine shaver, but the many Solingen razors I honed so far, were much easier to put into a shave ready condition. I think, I would never sell this razor, but seriously, I would never buy another one.
Too much work

I did misunderstand then I thought it wasn't shaving well after one shave which I've seen before with brittle steel.
Anyway I'm glad to hear it's shaving fine. On those big old W&B's I've seen folks have difficulty getting the last few MM's near the toe sharp. I think when we hone the big ones we don't contact the end of the blade with the hone as much as we should so it doesn't get the contact the rest of the blade does.
Nice razor though!

Well, things did not work out as well as I expected. This morning, I had a terrible fourth shave with my W&B shown above. Last night, I stropped it five times on a chromium oxide paddle strop and stropped it on leather. By touching the blade, I could literally feel, that the edge got finer and sharper, I expected a great shave. The razor disappointed me at the first pass, the following two were even worse. I could literally feel every single hair being cut, I needed much more pressure then with significantly lighter blades. As the careful treatment with chromium oxide did not show any improvement, I gave the edge a little touch up on the stones:
Naniwa 3k: 50x
Blue Belgian Coticule: 60x
Blue Slate Stone: 100x
Chromium Oxide: 20x
Newspaper: 20x
Letaher: 80x

The blade feels much sharper as it did after the first honing, the HHT works better, too. I'll give it a try tomorow, hoping it's performance will improve.

Here some pics of a W&B "Keen Shaver", I traded recently. Seems to me like it is quite a rare model, I could not find much information about this razor on the internet. I had to shorten the blade because of nick of 2mm depth, so it is now 4/8" broad. Terrible to hone, too, but it tokk a great a edge and became a smooth shaver after a short breaking in period.




(Blade is not properly cleaned on the pics)

I should call it "before" picture, but still in great condition!

WB 7/8 American razor

Huh I have one with the same markings. It's smaller than yours and doesn't have a barber notch but I do love the etching!

Hope this is my entry to the Butcher Shop.
eBay finding. After unpinning and cleaning found a nice razor under the dirt. Horn scales, tin wedge. Polished the blade only mildly and repinned with brass rod and washers. Carefully fixed the old gold inlays, although parts of it were heavily outworn.
Now she carries her age with proudness. Honed, stropped and shaved.
Sorry about the picture quality.

That would make a nice matched pair with the "Bow" razor W&B made.

I'll snap some pics this weekend but I've fallen hard for the W&B and probably belong in this group! In a combination of RAD and a serious attempt to find that perfect blade for my beard type and face shape, I've decided that the 6/8 to 7/8 W&Bs slice through my horsehair beard like a hot knife through butter! The only other blade I'll use that even comes close is a #13 Filly.

I still need to research why but for whatever reason the W&B is by far the best shaver of the over 200 types I've tried thus far. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a full hollow or wedge - they all work wonders. Fillys are about the same on my beard but those 2 are all I'll use now. You gotta love a blade that shaves that easily with a smoothness that just can't be touched by modern manufacture!

By the way, where can I download one of those great W&B logos some guys use in their signature line? The one with the full logo with arrow.