Shave Review; The Wade & Butcher DE

I bought this W&B DE because of my affection for the company's straight razors. Sort of a collecting motivation, not intending to ever shave with it. A recent thread on another member acquiring the same model renewed my interest in mine. I had gotten mine with two packs of blades, one pack containing 5 NOS blades and the other a single NOS blade. I decided to sacrifice the single blade for the sake of experimentation.

I'd like to tell you that I got a DFS but far from it. I didn't even bother going past a couple of passes before I gave up. Not to be deterred I took a pair of needle nose pliers and plucked out some material in a Gillette Swede blade, that prevented the blade seating properly, due to the peculiar construction of the top cap. I did take a shot at honing the curved blade but it was too difficult to maintain a consistent angle due to the curved blade. Maybe if a fixture was designed to hold it in place, but I'm not going there.

So IME the W&B is a mild shaver. Probably akin to a Gillette Fatboy adjusted to "3", or one of the blue tip Super Speeds. Nice weight, well made with deep knurling on the handle. So the good news is that with a pliers the blades can be made to work and if a person is looking for a vintage shaver of the mild variety the W&B delivers the goods. If you like aggressive it is not for you.

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Thanks for the review Jimmy. I'm currently in the middle of a trade for one. I traded a great condition Gillette DE for it.
I am like you, the W&B tradition drew me to the trade. I will using it for display (collection) anyway.