Thread: My kind of Christmas presents!

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

This might bring TC out of his cave.

Oh, and those are some beautiful Christmas presents!

Shhhhhhssss----

Let Sleeping Gorillas lie---

I still make wedges from lead. Use fishing sinkers to shape them because they are so malleable. Period correct too, depending on the restore being done.

Sorry you developed cancer. A scary condition I’m sure.
Good luck, with your shaves, and your treatments.

Don't trash the wedge unless you want something that looks different. Most horn scales have lead wedges. You can clean it up and polish the edges so it sines again.

Also, wood scales were not really common back then. Usually it is dried out horn scales. Even after leaning this I got a razor I thought might be wood. Turned out it was horn scales that were faded.
I guess since horn scales could be stamped out they were a lot more cost effective than using wood.

EDIT:

Sorry to hear about your fight with cancer. I wouldn't call it a Chicken Little moment though. Lots of people think of lead as being hazardous.
I will say this though. I highly doubt any of the old forges and razor makers were up to OSHA standards!

That's why there ARE OSHA standards, because of things like the mad hatter affect. My dad knew a guy years ago that was a painter. He had an employee that wouldn't wear the respirator when he was stripping old paint and got lead poisoning from it. The guy went off the deep end like Sid Barrett. After probably some treatment and a good amount of time he finally came back to normal but it made him basically schizophrenic. I've heard that in ancient Rome In the time and place of the Caesars they used lead water pipes and they think that's why some of the craziness went on with the likes of Nero and Caligula

Update:
So I've been dragging my feet on this one but I finally finished the restoration on this Westby. This is the one for which I cracked the scale (buffalo horn) and glued it but it wasn't to my satisfaction.




I reworked the blade (sanded and buffed) and replaced the scales with new buffalo horn. The scales I bought came with a small block of buffalo horn which I used for the wedge. I didn't go back with the lead that was in it originally because It was too small for the new ones and I decided not to reshape them (although, who knows, I may change my mind about that). I kind of like the shape and size of the scales with this blade. The only problem is it doesn't really fit into the box anymore although, as discussed earlier I do not believe that's the original box like I had previously thought.
I haven't honed it back up yet but I had it shave ready and shaved with it a time or two when it was in the old cracked scales. All in all I'm pretty pleased with it. It centers well, is tight in the scales, is well balanced in the hand and works well ergonomically on the strop.
As always opinions and suggestions welcome.

Glad you are still here to post!

Lead wedges have 4 thin edges exposed. just don't eat any😊

Still searching the history of this FANTASTIC shaver Westby Leicester. I think this one currently fits the "if you had to keep just one razor which would it be?" question. This is the only one I have that will do a BBS shave without going against the grain.
Anyway I found yet another member of the family or at least another cutler with the same name in Leicester. One Francis Westby who applied for patent for a razor sharpening device.

I'm still reading up on what it is but from a historical perspective, this was in 1829 so this pushes the date back at least another 11 years from the aforementioned Thomas Westby's advertisement in 1840 and likely longer since he almost certainly had to have already been a cutler for some time to be applying for patent on a device related to it (speculating here).
I'm still trying to figure out if this is the same Westby family as Westby and Son mentioned in the 1870s also in Leicester.