Thread: W Greaves & Sons

found this Greaves for 20$ this weekend and couldn't pass it up. As you can tell a little spine wear (doesn't really bother me considering the age of the razor) How many layers of tape should i use? I plan on soaking the scales i neetsfoot oil and cleaning up the rust, but other wise leaving it as is.
Also, should i try and get more of the smile back (by honing a little more of the heal end) or leave as is?

That is a good quality razor. A good cleaning and honing would be enough. After a while you might want to renew it.
Your plan is good. If you have honed a few razors, the angle of the bevel seems stable for the time over that last century plus of honing. So, I would try to hone it as is, perhaps with one layer of tape to set the bevel and then lightly with no tape across the hones to polish the spine and have a sharp edge.
Nice find for sure!
~Richard

Beautiful razor, awesome buy. As far as honing goes -- I would probably start out with 2 layers of 3M electrical tape and monitor the bevel closely as I went. Be careful trying to force a smile, that's difficult at best. You could try putting about 1" extra tape in the center of the spine and use some rolling and "swooping" strokes concentrating a bit of pressure at the heel. That technique generally works best with heavier grinds, but might be worth it here.

Hard to tell from this picture -- is this maybe a regrind? There's nothing wrong with a competently -done regrind, it's just a possibility given the age.

thanks for the advice. Not sure if it's a regrind, could it have been a true wedge at one time? right now it looks to be a near wedge.

Originally Posted by tintin

thanks for the advice. Not sure if it's a regrind, could it have been a true wedge at one time? right now it looks to be a near wedge.

This razor would have been a thicker grind, but there's really no true wedge, all razors were ground on circular wheels. The grinding diameter would be large, so the hollowing on this would have been small. This Greaves likely dates to the 1830s-40s, that seems to be when the tang stamp with the fencing foils shows up (and some nice corroboration is one I just got with fencing foils and 'WR', for 1830-37).

Very nice razor. Following the instructions above on honing will get you the edge you need. The swooping motion will help put that smile on it as well. I probably have about thirty or so W Greaves & Sons, W Greaves razors. I love 'em all. Great score!!!!!

im jealous !!! nice find !!