Thread: newb - wade & butcher basics

Originally Posted by joke1176

WHAT? I thought they went insolvent in 1890? You got a source on that? YOU ARE BLOWING MY MIND.

But of course. Somewhere I have the dates in a book and I will post it when I find it . Meanwhile here is an example of later production. I think that W&B Specials and other full hollows are also examples of 20th century production. Whether they survived after WWll I don't know but I think this safety razor may be postwar. Maybe not. Certainly it is from the 1920s or later. I apologize for the poor photos. I am not the greatest with that . The top cap has the familiar logo.

(Edit) I found the two reference books that I was looking for and they don't have the dates of manufacture. I thought that they did so but in the parlance of the ironworker trade I practiced for 20 years I overloaded my a$$ with my mouth. I still believe that the safety razor demonstrates that they were a longer lived company then the web resources suggest. They not only made the safety razors but also pocket knives and the fore mentioned Special and others were obviously from the "modern" era.

Do you guys know anything about the Special razor? I aquired one recently, shaves like a dream!

Originally Posted by Bren

Do you guys know anything about the Special razor? I aquired one recently, shaves like a dream!

I believe that was one of their later hollow grinds. Probably after 1920 or so. They are a good razor but most W&Bs are IME.

In 1921 the American company Durham-Duplex bought Wade & Butcher and used it for the production of their safety razors as well as other forms of cutlery. Wade & Butcher stopped production in Sheffield in 1959.
And sadly removed their trademark in 1980.