First Restoration

[jfleming9232]

Well, it's finally time to try out this whole restoration thing. I've picked my victim...er, subject, and am ready to go. I hope you guys can provide a lot of insight and advice 'cause i'm pretty sure I'll need it. Here is the project:

Wade&Butcher 7/16 with Barber's notch. The blade looks to be in good shape. It has quite a bit of patina and staining. You can tell it was closed up for a while because the coloring is different where the blade was in the scales. I'm still not that good at eyeballing the grind but it appears to be a near wedge or 1/4 hollow. The spine is slightly hollow and the edge is slightly smiling. The scales appear to be an ivory looking plastic of some type with some pretty interesting scrollwork. Here are a couple of before shots taken from my cell phone so the quality isn't the best but it should give you a good idea of what I'm starting with.

[jfleming9232]

And here are a couple more close ups of the blade:







Any thoughts/comments before I get started would be welcomed and appreciated.

[Maxi]

Have you given some thought as to what you'd like to accomplish with this resto? Here's what I mean:

- do you think you'll be happy leaving it as is, and honing it to shave ready?
- how about polishing it with some maas or flitz and a bit of 0000 steel wool?
- de-pinning? using the original scales? new scales?
- full hand or tool sanding and then polishing?

There are lots of options....deciding what you want to do or learn, and coming to that decision may be the difficult parts.

I've done this type of thinking with a couple of mine. When I first made scales, I used domestic wood at my inlaws place. It was in absolute abundance, so I was never concerned with making a mistake because I could always rip a couple new pieces. When I had some skill, then I bought a few different types of exotic woods. See what I mean?

Resto'ing is a whole ton of fun. I love the whole process....and it's also a boat load of learning (which is part of the fun). FWIW, I'd pick a skill set that I'd like to dabble in, and go from there. IE: If you want to learn how to hand sand, then hand sand that lady until she's gleaming and perfect. Try scales the next time. There's no need to overwhelm yourself or become frustrated with your first attempt on purpose....it will happen completely naturally!

Good luck!....oh...and take lots of pics.

[jfleming9232]

Thanks for the advice, Maxi. I've actually been practicing some of these skills for about a month or so. SWMBO is encouraging me by providing several razors she has found at flea markets and antique shops so I've had plenty of grist for the mill. This one just happens to be one of the ones that I think would be worth saving and i would like to get it back to it's former glory. I've taken a couple of blades through hand sanding, though I still haven't been able to attain that high mirror polish that I want but the results are encouraging. I have not done anything with scales yet except unpinning and pinning for practice. I've also been practicing my honing techniques on some of those "disposable" blades she found.
The W&B for me is special because the first razor I used was a W&B that Stefan honed and restored for me and that has been my preferred razor, although I also have a Fredrick Bender that he restored and honed for me as well. So I guess my focus on this one would be the polishing. I think the attachment I feel would bring out my best efforts.
Thanks again and keep it coming. I'll definately be posting more pics as it progresses. Also, any thoughts on re-using the scales would be greatly appreciated as well as some tips on cleaning them up.

[Maximilian]

At this point I'm mostly concerned about the intense patch of black staining/pitting I see at the shoulder. Especially the back side of the razor. If those pits go anywhere deep in the steel you are not going to be able to get a clean honed edge. Before anything I would start hand sanding (unless you have a buffer) and try to see how deep the black staining/pitting goes. I see a few other spots of pitting/stains at the edge. But the heel side is what I'd focus on mostly. If that clears then you can eat your heart out at sanding the whole razor.

[jfleming9232]

I see the area that you're talking about. On first look, it appears to be just surface discoloration, however, when I put the loupe on it it does go a bit deeper. I'll get it unpinned and get some sandpaper on it tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up on that.

[Str8Raz0r]

I'm not in the same league as these other guys but IMHO the pins on this one look like they might be tricky to unpin (might be okay with a drill), but more so on the repin. Trying to peen the pin and avoid the raised sections on the scales might prove difficult.

Stu

[jfleming9232]

Thanks for the heads up on that. I hadn't considered the fragility of the scrollwork. However, with a small file, some WD40 and a center punch, they came out pretty easily. The only issue was a spot on the bacl pin where my file slipped and scratched the surface of the scales but it wasn't too bad. Here are a couple unpinned pics.









One thing I did notice on the scales was that the wedge seems to be glued in. I'm not sure what was used but I'm a little leery of trying to force it apart, I don't want to break the scales. Would it be easier to consider the scales as one piece or will I have to figure a way to seperate the wedge out?







Again, all comments are welcomed. I'm gonna put some sandpaper on it now and check and see how bad the pitting is going to be.

[TwistedOak]

One thing I did notice on the scales was that the wedge seems to be glued in. I'm not sure what was used but I'm a little leery of trying to force it apart, I don't want to break the scales. Would it be easier to consider the scales as one piece or will I have to figure a way to seperate the wedge out?

Again, all comments are welcomed. I'm gonna put some sandpaper on it now and check and see how bad the pitting is going to be.

Although it has the wedge pin, if the scales and wedge are stuck at all I would treat them as a one piece and just clean out the wedge pin hole.

[jfleming9232]

Well, after about 45 mins to an hour with some 150 grit here's what I have.....



It didn't go as deep as I feared but it was deeper than I initially thought. Still a bit more to go to get it all. Hopefully the other side will be a little easier.