W&B “The Canadian Razor”

[mr_houston]

I just got this Wade & Butcher - The Canadian Razor. I have a couple of questions.

I thought I’d seen these before, but I can’t find anything on the internet. Any information?

I really like the patina, but have some active rust to deal with. The 2nd picture shows how dark it is, esp. the tang. Recommendations for restoring it?

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Very cool. You can unpin and preserve the collars, flatten pin head, center punch and drill the pin with a new 1/16th in drill bit in a drill press or tiny diamond burr in a Dremel with flex shaft. The flex shaft will give you lots more control and are not expensive, especially good if your hole starts to go crooked, take your time. Diamond burrs are inexpensive.

I agree keeping the patina. Once unpinned, soak in vinegar for a few minutes, not more than 5 minutes, scrub with a stiff tooth or gun cleaning brush to remove the red rust. If you take off too much heat the blade in hot tap water and quench in vinegar to blacken again, blow dry with compressed air and let dry, oil once dry.

Polish the etch with lapping film or the highest grit wet & dry you can find, with a synthetic cork backer to polish only the raised etch/stamp.

I like to polish the finger hold on the tang and the top and bottom side of the tang, where your fingers will hold the razor and the spine.

A new set of horn scales copied from the originals and your set. Maybe just hand sand horn scales to 600 grit for a mat finish.

Lots of fun possibilities, nice find, enjoy.

An alternative to vinegar is applying Evaprorust with a Qtip to stop the active rust. May need a few applications.

 

[J B Addis]

Another option is ferroconverting the patina to stable black iron oxide, also known as rust bluing, a common preservation method for antique firearms. Gently scrub off the crusty spots of red rust with fine steel wool, degrease well, and boil in distilled water for an hour or so. Clean off the scum that will form on the metal with fine steel wool and immediately apply mineral oil.

This is a very noninvasive stabilization method and will prevent further oxidation while leaving the etching intact.

 

[Gamma]

I always looked at this as being similar to the "United States" etched razors they made. Dunno if there is more to it than that. Plenty of options for restoration, depends on your skills and mindset. That razor is worn, I'd probably keep most of the battle scars. Some guys use Evaporust, I might just start with a soft toothbrush and some scouring powder to see what happens. I don't sweat vintage collars, there are repros available and they work well.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Looks like a 7/8 near wedge square point. Wade & Butcher made lots of these. Because there does not seem to be much marketing material for Wade & Butcher razors, it is hard to know what different etchings the company put on these razors. I assume that lots of these razors were made with etchings but, again, hard to know.

I would do what you want in terms of restoration and just enjoy it. Great razors!

 

[mr_houston]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys.

I decided to sand and high-polish (not mirror) everything but the etching and tang stamp. Those I hit with white buffing compound and Flitz only.

I am going to buy a cheep W&B for scales and get some of those dome repro collars.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Nice work.

You can blue the blade stamp with cold gun blue and Q-Tip, then sand the stamp with lapping film or 2k wet & dry to make it pop and clean up any overflow.

If you use gun blue, pour a bit into a container, do not use from the bottle, if you re-dip you will contaminate the whole bottle for future use. Clean with acetone, heat the blade with hot water, dry then blue, for darker blue, may take a couple applications to get the color you want.

This works great for stamps and etching.

 

[Frank Shaves]

^
Nicely done, especially the etching - which you can now clearly see!

 

[Sando]

Nicely done! She’ll hone up and be good for another 100+ years.