Thread: Vintage/Antique 13/16+ Wade & Butcher Sheffield Razor.

Bought this today waiting for it to ship

Looks like some kind of snake wood and a the same time doesn't.
Is it cocobolo?

Nice purchase!

Nothing like a good wedge.

Nice wood, though they might be thick n clunky.

It is snake wood

Nice blade. I have one identical in dyed horn that is in my queue for restoration. Hell of a good shaver.

What makes this a good shaver? I guess more generally, this seems to have a less common bolster on the blade edge. That’s the grind in view? Hollow or not…. I’m asking these noob questions because I can’t figure out how the grind can affect the cut. It seems like geometry or not?

This is indeed a handsome blade.

Well, W&B is an established brand, well known mostly for their huge and heavy blades. This is quite similar to the "For Barber Use" model which is, once again, a well known beast.
Therefore you can extrapolate that it's most probably a good shaver.
Like saying a Le Grelot Royal Canada or Filarmonica will be good shavers: they are notorious.

There are several ways the grind affects the cut.

And this is one of the most extreme examples.
Hollowed blades ("hollows") are on the light side, need a bit more pressure, and offer an audio feedback (they sing or rattle depending on who you ask)
Lightly hollowed blades like this one, colloquially called "wedges" tend to be muted, and should rather be used with light pressure and the help of their weight (and big daddy here is heaaaaaavay ! look at that girth it's balancing around, "an absolute unit" the kids would say)

Wedges have no difficulties on handling heavy duty (like a real dense beard in one pass), hollows excel on shorter hair and lead a lot of their practitioners to very close shaves quickly thanks to their feedback.

More or less, vice versa, etc

Doesn't matter what grind they are. Their all ground at the same angle of degree

...more or less. Some of it has to do with the steel used and the overall shape too. Some of it is ergonomics. That Arabian of mine, the whacky looking thing with the big monkey tail is a fun, jaunty big ol' thing once you get it stropped but MAN is that a chore. That W&B is a straightforward, heavy straight blade that's easy to handle, hone, strop and shave with. There's a reason why that general shape has been around so long: because it woks and works well...
AND it is made of good Sheffield steel.