Wedge Restortion: Saving the Engraving

I just bought a 7/8 Wade & Butcher off ebay. It's got some nice engraving on the side. Just says Wade and Butcher in what appears to be Old English font and India steel razor in cursive. Nothing too fancy. But I want to be able to save it. I did some test passes on the 1k but quickly noticed that the engraving would be smoothed away if I kept at it.

This is my first restoration by the way. I plan on repinning it and giving it a good sanding and polishing. Am I being over cautious or does anyone recommend any particular way of going about this restoration without just killing it?

I assume you have read the hand sanding howto by Bruno.
This is what I would do:
Looking a the pic's on ebay, there seems to be some staining on the etching, if MAAS or a simular metal polish won't remove it, you could try some buffing compound and working your way down to coarser grits, this will most likely remove the etching though, if it's really important to keep the etching, you can try covering the etching with tape and sand everything else.
The scales looks to be in decent condition, any fleebites on them can be filled with CA and sanded smooth. Treat the scales with some neatsfoot oil(?) to recondition them.

Hey thanks. I think I'll just stick to the polish. I want to try to keep it original if I can.

I only know of one way that for sure works everytime....

Here is the thread all 300 + posts of it

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ntation-3.html

Look around post #53 to see how the engraving came out
I have used this many times now, it works on any razor, it does not take out pitting or rust, this is a polishing method, not a cleaning method....

That's amazing. Compared to buying all the sanding grits, it may come out to be a better buy.