Thread: 8/8 Wade & Butcher The Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor

I swear that on some of the old dry scales one side actually shrinks and causes a Ben in the longer scale. Have you soaked them in oil at all?

I haven’t soaked them in oil yet. I need to buy the oil, but I also need to do a bit of sanding first.

Can I soak the whole razor, including the blade?

I'm certaintly not an expert because I've never soaked scales before but it will not hurt the blade. In fact it might help it in the very least case by slowing down any rust. Rust is an oxidation reaction. The oil keeps the oxygen in the water from stealing electrons from the iron by creating a barrier that the water can't pass. It won't help to reverse it but it will help keep it from getting any worse.

We always think of the air that we breathe as being mostly oxygen but it's not. In fact there's hardly any oxygen in it at all compared to water. That's why it's so important to keep water away from the blades. Air is only about 20% oxygen while water is almost 90% oxygen.

You can absolutely soak the entire razor. I never tighten any pins before soaking either. Also you can soak it then work the blade back and forth and resoak it, it get tons of crud out of the pivot area, add dental floss if you want a deeper clean.

Originally Posted by joelkerr

I steamed the scales tonight. I got them to separate, which is a start, but they're still not quite straight. The blade isn't quite centered. But this proves that the scales are most definitely salvageable!

Attachment 308782

Attachment 308783

Horn is an amazingly tough material. I have 250 year old horn scales that are perfectly usable (they definitely start showing their age by that point, though!)

These will fix right up, good as new.

Here it is after soaking in neatsfoot oil for a couple of days. I'm very happy with how it turned out!

It looks like a fully functional, well loved 100 year old razor.