Thread: Frameback W&B

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

No "England" on the tang, pre 1891. Robert Doyle's book says framebacks "made their debut in 1850" and they "became very popular in the 1860s. No mention of how long they were made. The three I have are all pre 1891.

It is not often we find a razor that old in such nice condition. Razors that are that old which have been 'restored' are quite common. I'd leave it as is.

In this particular case, Doyle is simply wrong. Ebenezer Rhodes was the first in Sheffield with a frameback, and I think his was made around 1818. It didn't catch on though, probably mostly because Rhodes was more interested in writing a book about the local scenery and starring in plays he'd written.

However, Wade & Butcher made their first frameback not much later. This ad ran January 29th, 1827 in an Boston newspaper. Jacques Lecoultre was also producing razors a bit before 1850, and they were popular enough that he had to start stamping his blades because other manufacturers were copying them.



Most of the framebacks we see are from the range Doyle states, but they were definitely a good deal earlier.

Originally Posted by PierreR

As far as the restore goes. I started with the scales, they had a lot of raised grain that the oil treatment did little for, so I cleaned them with a diluted mix of acetone and soapy water, dried thoroughly then lightly sanded. I used 400 to 1000 grit papers, wrapped around a little block of G10 used as a sanding block. The block helped a lot on the chamfered edges of the scales, to avoid rounding the edges. Then I used a tight sewn cloth buffing wheel to "erase" the fine scratch lines from sanding. I started with a product called ZAM a green scratchless buffing compound, followed by a light buff on a loose cloth wheel using white diamond buffing compound.

For the blade, I cleaned it with acetone, and it was a straight buff. There was next to no pitting, just a little dark spotted patina, and dried gunk here and there. The notch had a tad of corrosion, that I removed with some 600 grit paper wrapped around a 3/16 brass rod. For the buff I started with green chromium---- oxide on a tight wheel, followed by Zam, and white diamond.

So as far as machine work, it was a simple bench grinder, with cloth wheels in place of the typical grinding wheels.

That looks AWESOME! Great job!

Originally Posted by Mikael

...Here's one of mine, with a "clean" frame (they was plated in the same metal color as the blade, originally)...

Hey, Mikael, I've taken the J A Hellberg frameback I got from you back to a 'clean' frame after I posed my post on this thread; it looks really nice with the gold coloured frame now. However, the really soft brass got very thin on the tip; as I was trying to make it perfectly smooth, so I had to remove a small amount from the length of the frame. It's not a problem, but I guess if others were going to try it it's worth knowing that even with 800 wet and dry it's really easy to overdo it and remove too much metal from the frame itself...

Looks AWESOME after the buff/polish job on the scales and blade Pierre. Maybe the 2 on the tang has something to do with the extra curly shape and length of the tang? Just a guess........

Nice work, I am jealous.

Great save. I like the shape of the blade, it gives the illusion of being aerodynamic. Hope it doesn't fly away for you.

Jerry

Originally Posted by dtrain17

Looks AWESOME after the buff/polish job on the scales and blade Pierre. Maybe the 2 on the tang has something to do with the extra curly shape and length of the tang? Just a guess........

Nice work, I am jealous.

Thank you. The 2 could indeed indicate tang style, I was thinking along the lines that maybe it was part of a multipiece set...

Anybody have an educated opinion?