Thread: A strange W&B??

Going thru some stuff I found this Blade,Is 5/8ish half hollow.
The tang reads:Wade & Butcher's Blank for concaving sheffield,England.the B the arrow the cross
What the heck is concaving?

Hollowing, as in concave lens.

It's an activity. It was common before there were cars , trains or other forms of transportation. When the hunting was done for the week; the hunters would go from cave to cave to see what each hunter had killed for the week.
This was called "concaving".

Originally Posted by Hirlau

It's an activity. It was common before there were cars , trains or other forms of transportation. When the hunting was done for the week; the hunters would go from cave to cave to see what each hunter had killed for the week.
This was called "concaving".

Not true!

Concaving is actually spelunking for the incarcerated.

If I'm not (shudder) mistaken, it is exactly what it claims to be. You buy the blank and grind it to a concave ..... A.K.A. hollow ground. Some of the more knowledgeable history guys will either confirm that or, if it is incorrect, set us straight. (no pun)

I had to GOOGLE "spelunking",,then I put it back in the sentence you wrote,,,,,,,bad images hit me,,,

Geez guys

Sorry, I just hate admitting that I'm stumped

Interesting blade.

I expect it was born as a wedge blank to be exported to a cutler who would then grind it to his specs and probably grind that off the tang and stamp his own on it. As razors, even blanks, were exported, prevailing laws required maker and country of orgin to be stamped. Probably a rare thing to see!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I expect it was born as a wedge blank to be exported to a cutler who would then grind it to his specs and probably grind that off the tang and stamp his own on it. As razors, even blanks, were exported, prevailing laws required maker and country of orgin to be stamped. Probably a rare thing to see!

Razor concaving or hollowing or commonly called today a re-grind was very popular in the late 1800's just about every cutler and Barber's Supply house offered that service.