Thread: Johnson Western Works Sheffield

Just found this in the wild. It is not a maker with which I am familiar.

The blade is hollow ground with a thick spine. It’s quite a heavy blade.

Scales are horn and seem to be of different thicknesses and have some delamination that will have to be fixed. The wedge is lead and appears to be in really good shape

Some surface rust and discolouration that I will be working on and chips at the toe that will have to be ground out. The chips don’t worry me much as taking them out will help put a smile on the blade.

It looks like it was literally in the wild
Christopher Johnson.
He has quite a big write up in Tweedales Directory..
Hopefully it cleans up and shaves.
Cheers

That has seen better days. A big blade is always worth the effort in cleaning it up. Good luck with it and be sure to let us see it when your done. Nice grab BTW.

I wanted to see if there was good metal at the edge before I took off the scales so I scraped the surface rust off with a DE blade and went at the blade with MAAS and a cork-backed paper towel (several paper towels).

I’m pretty pleased with how the razor looks with a lot of the surface crap removed. I’m going to use diamond plate to reshape the toe and get rid of the big nicks there. I’ll discover how good the metal is there as I grind away. I will also work on that stabilizer that looks like it might lead to some honing problems later.

Next step will be to remove the scales, do some spot sanding to see how much of the black stuff can be removed and to try to renew the scales. I have some domed collars from Austin that I’m anxious to try out.

I used my coarse DMT to grind out the chips at the toe and begin to take down the stabilizer.

I am pleasantly surprised that the metal seems quite sound, even around the toe and I have the beginnings of a nice, narrow bevel. Feeling optimistic.

Nice big blade. Good luck with the restore. Those big old blades with that kind of pitting can be a challenge but fortunately there is plenty of steel to work with. Look forward to seeing your progress.

Looking good.!
Hopefully the pitting near the edge doesn't cause a lot of metal loss, to hit clean steel.

Sure has the English look of a Wosty, or Wade & Butcher.

Nice find, BTW

I’m stuck.

The MAAS took off a lot of the black discolouration, but I’m not making any further progress with the really black spots. They aren’t pits - I can’t feel any difference in height between them and the surrounding metal.


I’ve tried using 600 grit wet/dry, but it did not seem to have any effect. Any suggestions before I plug in my Dremel and start using the Scotchbrite wheels?

Take a look with your loupe, before going that route.

3M metal restorer/ polish, with steel wool works wonders, best I've used. Works good with a rag wheel and a dremmel

Those black spots look like what Glen calls devils spit. You might want to PM him for advice on their removal.

Bob