Thread: Recent W &B wedge purchase, which way to go??

Originally Posted by karlej

It's a little hard for me to see in the pictures but I suspect the scratches you see where left by the grinding wheel of the maker. It was called a glazed finish and IMHO the most common finish found on the old blades. The mirror finish was called a crocus finish. Here is a picture of the two finished for a side by side comparison. Are you capable of doing either finish by hand? Probably not. Removing the hone wear present on your blade by hand would be a long and tedious process. Most folks who hand sand work from heel to toe so the scratch patterns run that way. You razor was ground from the blade back to the bevel. There are a few folks here that have mastered the glaze finish by hand and finish with the scratch pattern running in the correct back to bevel direction. I think GSSIXGUN posted a how to here somewhere. Also Wolpack34 does a wonderful job with the hand done glaze finish.
Your comment about 0000 steel wool on the scales. That will leave a hazy finish. Follow with a polish like Mothers or MAAS to bring back the shine.
My suggestion to you to start would be to disassemble the scales saving the collars for reuse. Clean up the scales, hand polish the blade with Mothers polish and maybe some 0000 steel wool. The 0000 will scratch the blade so don't lean on it too heavy. Reassemble, add a couple layers of tape to the spine and hone. I'm sure it will be a great shaver and a good looking minimalist restore.
Attachment 244484

Those are both stunning blades karlej. Thanks for the great input.

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It looks like a nice old razor to me. You might leave it as a nice old razor for a month or three and shave with it. Get to know it and if you still like it at Christmas you might consider reworking it or doing a complete replacement but give it a chance to be itself.


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