Thread: Wade & Butchers and several of their friends

heres a handful of restores I have going in tandem with my custom blade bonanza over the next month. these ones kept me at the shop til about 3am, should be heading back in to finish up today. the start condition on all these was very poor, has been a lot of work so far but very worth it to see the progress, dirty fingerprints and all! I'll try to put together more detailed posts on the progress from start to finish in the future, I misplaced some of the before and during pics for these..... but heres where they sit

Man! I wish I could do that. They look great!

The hard work was certainly worth it. Magnificent blades!

I think this helps explain the popularity of the W&B make - they are just aesthetically very pleasing even in this naked condition. You've done a great job with them.

Great work is the 2nd from the right with the French point a W&B, a regrind or a different brand ?

Originally Posted by Substance

Great work is the 2nd from the right with the French point a W&B, a regrind or a different brand ?

2nd from right is a wostenholm frenchpoint. i reground the faces but the point is original

Originally Posted by Substance

Great work is the 2nd from the right with the French point a W&B, a regrind or a different brand ?

And here is the before condition of the wosty. not terrible but had heavy and uneven wear, especially at the spine. The regrind was to tighten that up as best as possible, and keep the half hollow grind intact

Nice Blades! I would have trouble letting all those go. I guess you have some nice 'keepers' to make up for it though.

What progression of compounds/polish did you use on most of them?

Originally Posted by JP5

What progression of compounds/polish did you use on most of them?

these are all touched up thus far just off the belt grinder up to 400 grit, keeping it as minimal a regrind as possible on the faces. I dont like to alter the grind from original design and I never use greaseless compounds that round over the lines and muddy the details but I will use a scotch brite belt to lightly smooth any errant grinding and satin finish the blade. Too much of that can muddy things up too! The W&B FBU and the John Barber far left have received some cleanup on a sisal wheel with emery compound but again, I dont want to go crazy and lose the crisp shoulders and lines so not much else will be done. I may take those two through white, green, red rouge on softer wheels to "color" the steel a bit, bring out a bit more luster.