Thread: Please help with chronological order of some Wade Butcher razors for display

For any experts reading this I would really appreciate some help arranging some razors by age for a wall display. Im sure with some of them it may be hard to tell which is older, but others may be clearly older or newer than others...

1. Anchor


2. Long slogan frameback


3. Feather Edge


4. Diamond Edge


5. Old Army 1776 (I know this wasn't made in 1776)


6. For Barbers Use


7. American Razor


8. Masonic


9. Double Concave


10. Faux Frameback


11. Mother of Pearl Scales - Made in England (should be the newest)



12. (I am still to buy one but want to leave space in the display for one)... The Celebrated For Barbers Use - this is random picture from the web but what I hope to get one day...


Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

I would put 5 as the oldest. I think 6 and 11 are the newer one all the others are close in time frame, But maybe Manah will confirm. He has a wealth of knowledge

Thanks... I would have guessed the Anchor as the oldest, with perhaps the frameback after that, followed by diamond edge and feather edge next, followed by the army & FBU after that, followed by the celebrated, with the MOP last, as it has Made in England on it.

But I really have no idea. I read here that the Old Army razor was made by W&B to look like an older razor but wasn't one of their older models. Not from 1700's apparently, no stub tail.

For anyone interested, as a relatively newbie, the Anchor is by far my favoured shaver so far, followed by the FBU. Havent had a chance to shave with the diamond edge, american, old army or double concave yet as they are currently with gssixgun for restoration. The feather razor is a great shaver but for me not as nice as the anchor or FBU. The Diamond edge is prob my favourite aesthetically, but will have to wait to see how she polishes up.

I'll take a stab at that, but some of them are really hard to pin down very precisely.

1. Anchor -- 1825-1840.
2. Frameback -- 1850-1880
3. Feather Edge -- 1840-1860
4. Diamond Edge -- 1840-1860
5. Old Army Razor -- 1854-1870
6. Original wedge FBU (reground) -- 1840-1850
7. American Razor -- 1860-1880
8. Deep etch Masonic -- 1850-1880
9. Double Concave -- 1850-1870
10. Concave (the actual name of the faux-frameback) -- 1860-1880
11. MOP -- 1900-1910
12. Celebrated FBU -- 1870-1890

Thanks heaps Voidmonster. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to provide date ranges and correcting me re the concave - which I knew as faux frameback.

How can you tell the FBU is reground? Was it originally a full wedge?

I respect your knowledge on this matter, so unless someone else has anything to add in the next few days, I will proceed and make the display according to those date ranges... I'm building a hinged glass door cabinet, with angled (to stop them falling out) wood with cutouts to accommodate the razors.

Im surprised to see the celebrated FBU were more recent than the FBU. I had naively assumed they would be somewhat of a similar timeframe.

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

Thanks heaps Voidmonster. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to provide date ranges and correcting me re the concave - which I knew as faux frameback.

How can you tell the FBU is reground? Was it originally a full wedge?

I respect your knowledge on this matter, so unless someone else has anything to add in the next few days, I will proceed and make the display according to those date ranges... I'm building a hinged glass door cabinet, with angled (to stop them falling out) wood with cutouts to accommodate the razors.

Im surprised to see the celebrated FBU were more recent than the FBU. I had naively assumed they would be somewhat of a similar timeframe.

The FBU looks reground to me because that style (identifiable by the tang stamp, both the verbiage and the lettering) was not made with a stabilizer, and it looks like something odd happened to the top of the spine, where the blade meets the tang. That flat spot is just weird. I'd guess it was modified to have a straight edge instead of a smiling edge. And yeah, those older ones were much beefier razors. Probably ground on an 8" wheel, so not very hollow at all.