Wade & Butcher Bow Razor Restored

Hi Folks,

So I tried my first restoration of a razor, having won this Wade & Butcher Bow Razor on ebay for a song.

The razor was "texturally" pretty rough, but structurally quite sound after peening the pivot pin to get rid of the pivot slop. A little rust around the pivot area but nothing serious.

The scales obviously were pretty worn - the seller said they'd need to be replaced, but I thought I could dye them black again. I decided to see what would happen if I sanded it down. Apparently these worn down black horn handles have just lost the pigment over time, and have more black material underneath! Simply sanding them with 150-400-600 grit and hand polishing with automotive rubbing compound yielded the results below. No dye, stain, or wax.

As you can see in one of the photos, it appears that someone at some point had tried unsuccessfully to sand off the patina, leaving a bunch of unsightly scratches. I sanded as much as I could out with 600 grit, and then used rubbing compound and finally polishing compound to get it fairly even and smooth. Here I used a dremel just to save time (I would not use this on the horn handle as it may lead to burning/hazing of the surface).

Before:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/...aa012d1c_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5213/...850cbe36_b.jpg

And After (man is it hard to get the lighting right to photograph a shiny blade, I had to go all around the house to find the right light to even get the text to show up):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5015/...34f79067_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5131/...221dafc7_b.jpg

So, not completely shiny, but that wasn't the goal - just took enough off to get rid of most of the scratches, and it has a light patina to help keep the rust off. Some of the marks on the scales are still there, but they are deeper and could not really be sanded out. It's a natural product over 100 years old, though, it should at least somewhat look the part!

Overall I am very satisfied! Now if I could just get the dang thing shave ready! :boohoo:

I've still to add a W&B to my collection, I'm very jealous.

Sometimes I like to leave some character on razors, not like these posers who restore a 100 year old razor to a mirror shine with turtle shell ceramic scales that sings for he's a Jolly Good Fellow when you open the scales... I cant stand that... show off's :dropjaw:

You've done a really good job especially with the scales, they look fantastic, well done.

regards Alex