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Found this one at the local flea. Payed 30 for her. Almost no pitting.
Spine Saids "Celebrated Fine India Steel Set Ready For Use"
On the Blade "Diamond Edge Razor"
Tang "Manufactured By Wade & Butcher Sheffield"Attachment 71243dAttachment 71244"Attachment 71245
Nice find. That should clean up really nice.
Nice score!
The stamping looks to be pretty deep on that one, so you should be able to clean her up pretty nicely. The scales look to be in good nick as well, so be sure to keep them intact if you do decide to do some sort of restoration!
Good luck and keep us posted!
Oh my :dropjaw:!!! What a priceless find. Well done :tu. These are beautiful. Love the writings on the spine
That should be worth $30. Great looking razor.
Congratulations on your very good luck. That is a most handsome razor! Are you planning to hone it yourself?
What have you gotten yourself into? A lot more work than you can cheerfully evaluate in cash terms, probably, for that razor is looking at you as intently as a puppy in a pet shop, and whispering "Restore me!"
It's a good subject for restoration, because the pitting is shallow enough to remove with no damage to the stching. It shouldn't be hard to keep most most of the sanding down near the edge, to reduce the hone-worn bevel, but it isn't at all bad for its age. The original scales, almost certainly in pressed horn, are a big plus, as they are in condition too good to hand you any hard decisions on whether to keep them.
I am working on a Wade and Butcher Superior Concave, which is a sort of hollow-ground substitute, produced by lengthwise grinding, and it has almost the same India Steel inscription on the side of the spine. The SRP Wiki lists it as in production from 1830 to 1837, a short life probably due to losing out to true hollow-ground models like yours. "India" evokes an era, already a thing of the past, when there really were advantages in Indian steel, sometimes known as Damascus from which the route which the land trade brought it to Europe. The chances are that it is early Victorian, and how many things that age can work as well as anything you can buy today? For I bet this one will.
I'll be honing and restoring this one myself. If I run into problems with the honing I'll just get Maxi to sort it out for me.
Nice find! Unfortunately, my flea market connection appears to be played out at the moment. Some jagaloon buying up all the restorable straights that don't cost an arm and a leg...wait, that was ME! Anyway, great looking razor, it should clean up nicely and be a great shave. Have fun.
Great find mate, love that blade. Very nice!
Very good find, this should clean up nice. Are you putting into your rotation?
This one will be going in the rotation. The hard part will be picking the one to take out of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by straightshooter007
*drool*
not that I need to inflate my post count, but that is a 'nice razor'
That truly is lovely...I was searching for straights at a flea market last weekend, but the only one I found had heavy hone wear, and was about a 3/8...I don't really like the super skinny razors! I did score seven razors (a combination of DE's and SE's) for a decent price...but I'd rather have the straights! Great find!
-Matt-
I really admire your razor; it represents all that was great in Sheffield razors; quality steel, classic grind, heavy blade, a superior and elegant group of etchings and stamps, absolutely great embossed horn scales....you could find no better razor. I would bet that you will get perfect and comfortable shaves with it, once it has been well honed. Please post the " after" pictures and shave report when the time comes! You have my sincere envy for your flea market treasure!
So many of those have to sacrifice the stamping and frosting in order to save the steel. Yours was done differently than most I have seen and have much deeper stamping
I went to just about every flea market and antique store in the area and found, NOTHING now I'm jealous.
Oh and that is a nice looking razor, enjoy cleaning it up
-dan-
That's a rare & beautiful find! I like the ''old english'' style of lettering on it, nice touch.
I cannot wait to see the finished product. That razor will be a centerpiece for sure.. I just have a soft spot in my heart for those old W&B's. They are so classicly beautiful.
Great find!!! Makes me want to go to all the antique stores around here to see what they might have!!
Good luck with it mate!!
M
That really is a super nice find. It's amazing to me that there is still gold lettering on the handle after all these years.....that stuff comes off sooo easy from normal use. Maybe you could seal it so as not to lose it?
Jim
