Thread: John Watts Frameback restore

Just finished restoring the John Watts Frame back.I cleaned the rust off with a progression of Micro Mesh.I reset bevel on 1K Sharpton Glass and did a progression to 8K .The edge was finished on a Belgian Couticle.She is a sweet shaver.I love the thumb notch.It give you a bit more control.

Nice job, Mike! She looks great. I'm glad to see her back in shaving shape.

Looks great. Are those leather scales?

Nice looking restore, and most important, it shaves great.

Pressed Horn I think .

Please take a closer look. From those pics, I’m almost certain that those are not horn. The texture looks very much like the leather scales that I’ve seen.

The scales do look like leather to my eyes, I have a few razors with similar scales. The razor looks interesting, I've seen them for sale but always passed they by, need to take a look next time
John Watts factory on Lambert Street, Sheffield has been nicely preserved, although converted to apartments. On an article I read, when the factory was expanded in the 1900's it was built over the cottages on the street, inside were the hidden parts of the cottages, windows, walls etc.

John Watts Ltd.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/r...home-1-7106936

Nice job..
I have one of those in need of restoration.
I assumed the scales were some type of compressed cardboard.
Leather makes sense

I think the scales are leather; I've got a Watts and they sure feel (and look) like leather to me. Other makers used leather too but I can't off hand recall which ones.

I have a few sets of those scales.
If memory serves me, one set is broken and appears to be paper/cardboard type stuff..