Thread: Wade & Butcher Antique store find...from the 1830's?

Originally Posted by gugi

Well, I personally would stay away from something like this - it's not original, the regrind job looks bad, and the giant frown with corresponding heavy and uneven hone wear means a lot of work to make it to shave. And if it does it's still ugly.
My experience is that if somebody had to put such uneven honing on a blade they were trying for a long time to make it shave better, i.e. not a good gamble.
In any case, I think this is an example of what people ought to stay away from. I simply don't see a single positive thing on this razor (an early W&B stamp for me is a negative, unlike say john barber, or marshes&shepherd).

But YMMV, it's your money and your elbow grease.

No positive thing?? It's 174 years of pure history right there. Where else can you hold something that is 174 years old? It's hard to tell what it's history has been. It could have been anywhere in the world, even traveled it several times. Sure, it's not a museum piece, and its seen its better days, but it has been saved from rusting away into razor oblivion. Not your cup of tea? Fine, more history for me :-)

Originally Posted by gugi

Well, I personally would stay away from something like this - it's not original, the regrind job looks bad, and the giant frown with corresponding heavy and uneven hone wear means a lot of work to make it to shave. And if it does it's still ugly.
My experience is that if somebody had to put such uneven honing on a blade they were trying for a long time to make it shave better, i.e. not a good gamble.
In any case, I think this is an example of what people ought to stay away from. I simply don't see a single positive thing on this razor (an early W&B stamp for me is a negative, unlike say john barber, or marshes&shepherd).

But YMMV, it's your money and your elbow grease.

I agree with gugi - you should send it to me immediately for proper disposal.
I think it's a great score - I want one