So here is my first, Now what?

So I aquired what I hope will be my first shaver...or first piece of a hopefully ever expanding collection. I do believe it shows promise but as I am new to this I hoped some of the more senior might offer me their opnion. I picked this Wade & Butcher up from a local antique shope for what I thought was a fair price. It has bone scales one of which is cracked, however the blade looks like it shows promise in my opinion, again I am new but I have read enough to hopefully have a good idea what to look for. The blade appears to have very minor patina and no scaling rust or anything like that. It appers to be smiling at me:) I wont try to comment to much on an area I'm not yet that familiar with so I hope I took good enough pictures that you guys may be able to give me your opinions and suggestions. Sorry for the rookie picutures haha.

Is that crack stable and all Hold tight?
Depending on the answer I would only do a light polish on it, then learn to shave with it as is, while buying a different one to restore. Once you get a hang of shaving and a few restores on (for the lack of a better term.. Junk razors) then go back and restore the W&B, it would be a shame to make a mistake on such a beauty. And that is a beauty...

Nice find..

P.S.(edit) If it is a stable crack in that scale. Then send it off to get honed. And shave up...I am not a senior member, but I was in your shoes a few months ago.... Thats almost the route I choose, but instead I spent money on stones and have been learning to hone before I did my first restore.

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Originally Posted by sidmind

Is that scale cracked? If so is it stable and all Hold tight? Is your goal to shave with it?
Lots of questions. But depending on the answer I would only do a light polish on it, then learn to shave with it as is, while buying a different one to restore. Once you get a hang of shaving and a few restores on (for the lack of a better term.. Junk razors) then go back and restore the W&B, it would be a shame to make a mistake on such a beauty. And that is a beauty...

Nice find..

P.S.(edit) If it is a stable crack in that scale. The send it off to get honed. And shave up...

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Yes it is cracked and yes it does feel stable. Absolutly I want to shave with it. Long term I would love to restore it I will take your advice though and wait till I'm a little more expierienced I would hate to mess it up. I feel down right honored to have scored this as my first razor. Thank you for the advice.

If you are just wanting it to look better while you are learning to shave and while learning to restore, i have two more pieces of advise.

1) buy some micro mesh from woodcraft or the internet. And do the blade polish with that. It will get it looking about 70% better without doing any long term damage. The grit is very forgiving. And of course with the scales on you cant polish all of the tang, but......it will still be close.
Link to MM I use, They sell it lots of places... http://www.amazon.com/Micro-Mesh-Sof...dCob0F5VF3B_tt

2). Find a farm and garden (horse feed supplier) and buy some neats foot oil (100% pure) and soak it for 2-4 days in a zip lock baggy, it will only take an ounce or so of oil, if you remove the air pocket. Then polish using the micro mesh, yeah it won't be perfect because of the pins getting in the way,but the scales will end up looking brand new.

Again thank you for the advice. I plan to get moving on this right away, I definitely want to be shaving with this baby asap.

The micro mesh and neetsfoot oil will be needed in your tools of the restore trade anyway..

What other tooling do you have in your garage? Grinders? Sanders? Band saw? Coping saw? Buffing wheels?

Or are your starting fresh like I did a few months ago?

I think after a touch up with neats foot oil the scales will look awesome. Just get a smal bottle.

I am completely new to it however I do have some tool ie.. dremel assorted wheels in addition to just about any small tool I may need. I had a buffer at one time just not sure where it is due to a recent move. Though I don't own any saws personally I do have easy access to just about any saw, or tool I could need along the way. That allong with some knowledge and expierience in other types of restoration and mods not related to STR8 I think this is definitley (dare I say hobbie because it's much more than that) an art I will take great liking to.