Thread: Wade and Butcher 17/16 Anchor

Originally Posted by Phrank

Thanks Voidmaster!!

Could you explain, "reground", I've heard the term before, and have a concept of what it means, but could you elaborate in terms of this razor and in general?

Sure thing!

Back when these were the tools of choice, there were whole support industries built up around them. A lot like computers, and the way you can find little mom & pop computer repair stores anywhere the rent is cheap. Razors were (and are) temperamental beasties, so there was a demand for folks who could repair them.

The freelance grinder was the guy most well known. Since one of the main things that happened to old razors, as we're well accustomed, is they'd get rusty, especially if the user treated them the way most users treat commodity goods (think computers, here, again). Or maybe the owner did his own honing and wasn't so great at it, or he used a grinding wheel of his own to hone it or whatever. The end result was a razor that wouldn't easily take a usable edge which was possibly also rusted. So you'd take your razor to a grinder. He'd have a big stone wheel, usually pedal-powered, and he'd use it to either just grind the rust off, or to reshape the blade so it could be honed normally again. Later, when hollow-ground razors became desirable, some of them would hollow out old wedges. It looks like that's what happened to yours.

It's a mostly neutral thing, unless you're looking for 'original condition'. Often reground razors are very, very good shavers. I've got a Fred Fenney 'Tally Ho' which was reground paper-thin very late in its life and it's one of the best shaving razors I own. Chances are excellent that even though the grinding on your razor isn't the most aesthetic (the very wide 'shelf'-like stabilizer at the heel of the blade), it still shaves great.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Thanks Voidmaster!!

Could you explain, "reground", I've heard the term before, and have a concept of what it means, but could you elaborate in terms of this razor and in general?

I ain't he, and knew little about "regrinds" until i saw it here in this thread. Thanks guys. I'm pretty sure that they mean that this was a wedge reground to hollow, that the stabilizer shows the original blade contour. See?

Did i guess right? Maybe the Anchor was added at the time of regrind? ...yeah i know, i'm really stretching it.

Maybe a lot of great old wedges were reground to refresh and "modernize". Like freshing out a ML barrel BITD. I'll be looking out for it from now on.
+++
oh look i was half right. (i'll go delete the other half).

no i won't. Hey that's where your other 1/16" went. Or maybe it was 3/16"?!

Thanks for the info..so the Anchor mark, not being Birmingham steel then, is just some add on?

I found another Anchor W&B here, although it's quite larger (possibly original condition?), are these basically the same blade?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...e-butcher.html

Holy slab sides! yeah, see that thing started out as a 12/8! i'd be surprised if your blade wasn't originally VERY close to that one.

but nevermind me, i'm a novice at this stuff.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Thanks for the info..so the Anchor mark, not being Birmingham steel then, is just some add on?

I found another Anchor W&B here, although it's quite larger (possibly original condition?), are these basically the same blade?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...e-butcher.html

Yours is older than that one, I'd bet (the arrow mark doesn't really show up until at least mid-1850). I'd guess yours wasn't ever much smaller than it is. You can tell by the proportion of the tang-width to the rest of the blade.

As for the anchor mark, it was almost certainly stamped on before the blade was heat-treated, so it's *very* original.

Wade & Butcher made an incredible variety of blades. They're like one of those bands who's put out a thousand-million singles that were only ever sold in one record store that, and thus sends collectors into fits trying to find everything. I've only seen a few of the ones with anchors on them, (and I see, incorrectly attributed one to Birmingham because I thought that was true then!)

What did the anchor signify on it? I have no idea. I've done some literature searches and I can't come up with anything, but that's really common for symbols. Text is a lot easier to find!

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Yours is older than that one, I'd bet (the arrow mark doesn't really show up until at least mid-1850). I'd guess yours wasn't ever much smaller than it is. You can tell by the proportion of the tang-width to the rest of the blade.

As for the anchor mark, it was almost certainly stamped on before the blade was heat-treated, so it's *very* original.

Wade & Butcher made an incredible variety of blades. They're like one of those bands who's put out a thousand-million singles that were only ever sold in one record store that, and thus sends collectors into fits trying to find everything. I've only seen a few of the ones with anchors on them, (and I see, incorrectly attributed one to Birmingham because I thought that was true then!)

What did the anchor signify on it? I have no idea. I've done some literature searches and I can't come up with anything, but that's really common for symbols. Text is a lot easier to find!

Thanks again Voidmonster! Surprised to hear that you haven't seen that many, I figured since they were W&B there'd be lots of blades like this out there. The seller said it was very rare, but I've learned that every blade I've bought off E-Bay the seller says it's rare, or extremely rare, or unique

So if it wasn't much smaller than it is, what regrinding was done? Doesn't that drastically reduce the blade?

So you think it's dated prior to 1850?

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Phrank

Thanks again Voidmonster! Surprised to hear that you haven't seen that many, I figured since they were W&B there'd be lots of blades like this out there. The seller said it was very rare, but I've learned that every blade I've bought off E-Bay the seller says it's rare, or extremely rare, or unique

So if it wasn't much smaller than it is, what regrinding was done? Doesn't that drastically reduce the blade?

So you think it's dated prior to 1850?

Cheers!

Yeah, eBay sellers are sure EVERYTHING is rare and highly valuable, so you really have to take that with a grain of salt. But the anchor-stamped W&Bs are genuinely unusual to find.

The regrinding on yours looks to have mostly taken thickness rather than blade width. That would've made it easier to hone, for one thing, and lighter too. I was looking at the pictures again and I noticed that it looked like it had some deep hone wear on the spine *before* it was reground, so the surgery was probably to correct for that. Looks like it was pretty successful too, since it appears like it's got a thin bevel. No way to really know until it's been on some hones, though.

And yeah, I'd say it was probably made before 1850. Without a clearer idea of when and where that anchor mark was used, it's a challenge to say much more than that, but yours doesn't have the arrow mark beneath the anchor & W&B logo, so I strongly suspect earlier than later.

Nice find! Congrats!

JC

Just received the W&B Anchor...it really is in great shape, the blade is in great shape, no nicks or bumps, it's in really superb condition for a razor it's age.

Scales look almost brand new!! For probably the oldest razor I now have, it has virtually pristine looking scales...sheesh, they look even better than some vintage razors I've bought from the 50's!!

So off it goes now to Val at the Gentleman's Den to be cleaned up and honed! Now I'm debating between my favorite mirror polish or should I go satin finish!?!

Next week, will post the pics of the restored W&B 17/16 Anchor!!

Originally Posted by Phrank

Actually, you read my mind a bit on this...perhaps you can give me some advice.

The scales are in perfect shape...now I want to use this blade, I know the steel will be fine, but the scales, especially in that fine shape, I am worried about. So, what I'm pondering is should I rescale and store the original scales in order to protect them, or use the blade as is.

I'll admit I like the scales with the curved grip, just works better for me, but in the same sense, there is no real reason to rescale this but am worried about damaging obviously scales in great condition???

Oh yes, that is a nice razor. I plan to keep the original scales on mine. I think they're bone. Quite thin and delicate feeling but they have survived this long eh?