Re-Honing Wilkinson Empire model hollow ground safety blades

The Wilkinson Empire model was produced in England from about 1929 up to about 1952. There were a number of handle configurations and the later sets were seven day sets with special clips that the blades fit into, with the clips then being inserted into the razor. This series of razors are single-edge safeties with an adjustable safety bar. The Empire models, like the Valet Auto Strop razors, are also designed so you may strop the blade while it is still in the handle. A little knob at the rear is turned to move the safety bar in and out.

There are no modern production blades for this razor, so anyone wishing to use one will either need to find some NOS blades or to re-hone used blades. The Empire model blades are small hollow ground, hand-forged carbon steel blades. The blades were originally made to be used, stropped until they become useless, and then replaced with a set of new blades. So, if one wishes to experience this razor some blade re-conditioning will likely be in order. Fortunately, many of these sets do have a number of blades with them when for sale and they can be re-honed. The steel on the blades I did before writing this up was remarkably consistent, hard and well made. Stains cleaned up nicely and the blades readily took a good edge. But, those of you familiar with English steel should not be surprised. Using this razor is interesting, but that is really a subject for another thread.

There are earlier models than the Empire and they have different blade configurations. But, since the Empire model is the most prevalent it seemed to be a good choice for this write-up. You can see a good selection of these sets if you go to http://www.stropper.com/home/stropper_index.php and type Wilkinson in the search box.

In the next post is the honing process I used. Here is a typical 1930's set:

The blades are small and quite narrow, about 12 mm x 40 mm. They are a little more than half hollow to the eye. A photo is below. Since there is no handle, and the blades are very small, it is a different honing experience. I tried a number of holders, stroppers, clips, and the like and finally just settled on using my fingers. The blade pictured was used and dull enough that it did not even grab at all on my wet thumbnail- made for a good test.

Since the blades are narrow I wanted to keep a reasonably small but good solid bevel as possible I honed the blade with three layers of electrical tape. There is actually quite a bit of room for the blade to lose some steel and still fit well in the holder. So, I am thinking these blades may be if handled well re-honed a number of times and useable for quite a while. A photo of a taped blade is also below. I trimmed the width of the tape back a bit to make sure it would not interfere with the contact of the edge on the hone.

As to equipment, as with many of you, I have a lot of hones to choose from. For this exercise, I wanted a minimalist, low-cost approach; because there may be some SE shavers out there with these sets that may want to give them a try. And, most sets will need the blades honed. My choice was a credit card sized DMT 1200 to set the bevel and a small coticule bout to go from bevel to finish. Of course, you could use any of many hones to achieve the same results. But, this set-up was small, inexpensive and only involved two hones. A photo of the bout with slurry and blade on it is below.

The honing process used was a series of small circles, 40 small circles and then flip the blade over and do 40 more. I used about 5 sets of 40 to get the bevel set. There were a few microchips, but the blade was not really that bad. Before leaving the DMT I did 30 light, no pressure regular X honing strokes. Then I moved to the coticule bout.

After I created the slurry I repeated the process and did another 5 sets of 40 circles before diluting the slurry and then I added a bit of water every two sets of 40 circles until the slurry was almost clear. The blade started getting nice and sticky on the TPT about 80% through this process. Then, the stone was washed and I did about 100 regular X strokes with just water. The edge was easily cutting arm hair and passed the HHT at 2-3 when this was complete. A good thorough stropping with the included strop and the shave was just fine.

Please feel free to post any questions, PM or email me.

Nice work. Why three layers of tape? I would have though one would be enough to protect the spine.

What shape is the strop in after all these years?

legion said:

Nice work. Why three layers of tape? I would have though one would be enough to protect the spine.

What shape is the strop in after all these years?

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Good questions. Yes, one layer surely would protect the spine. I actually tried one, then two, then three layers. Three gave me a better angle to work with in keeping the bevel thinner. It still widened a bit even with three layers of tape. It also just felt more comfortable there. More tape also gave me a bit more leverage with my index finger in keeping the edge flat on the hone. It is quite a small blade to work with (~12mm x 40 mm). Bigger than an ejector blade (~8mm x 38mm), but smaller than a double edge blade (22mm x 43 mm). It might work well with less tape and I would surely encourage others to try.

The strop was salvageable. I had to lightly sand the surface with 1000 git sandpaper to remove some sort of mold or other gunk that had accumulated on the surface over the years. Then I used some saddle soap to clean the leather and recondition it. It was not brittle and still rather supple, which was a pleasant surprise. Since it was rolled up for so long, it developed creases, so I hung some weight on the bottom of it when I finished cleaning it and hung it up to dry. That has helped flatten it quite a bit and it is now useable, if not beautiful. Unfortunately, the Wilkinson strop is just a hair less wide, about 1/8", than the Valet strops, so they are not prefect substitutes. I will make a new one if I decide to use the razor a lot.

I will try and post a review of the razor including the shaving experience in the few weeks. I want to use it another couple of weeks before doing so. It is heavy headed, even more than a Valet, but interesting with the adjustable roll bar. So far, it is giving quite a decent shave in three passes.

Very nice right up. I didn't expect the blades to look as robust as they do. Seems a waste to use them for a bit and them toss them...it must have been expensive at the time.

natchez said:

Good questions. Yes, one layer surely would protect the spine. I actually tried one, then two, then three layers. Three gave me a better angle to work with in keeping the bevel thinner. It still widened a bit even with three layers of tape. It also just felt more comfortable there. More tape also gave me a bit more leverage with my index finger in keeping the edge flat on the hone. It is quite a small blade to work with (~12mm x 40 mm). Bigger than an ejector blade (~8mm x 38mm), but smaller than a double edge blade (22mm x 43 mm). It might work well with less tape and I would surely encourage others to try.

The strop was salvageable. I had to lightly sand the surface with 1000 git sandpaper to remove some sort of mold or other gunk that had accumulated on the surface over the years. Then I used some saddle soap to clean the leather and recondition it. It was not brittle and still rather supple, which was a pleasant surprise. Since it was rolled up for so long, it developed creases, so I hung some weight on the bottom of it when I finished cleaning it and hung it up to dry. That has helped flatten it quite a bit and it is now useable, if not beautiful. Unfortunately, the Wilkinson strop is just a hair less wide, about 1/8", than the Valet strops, so they are not prefect substitutes. I will make a new one if I decide to use the razor a lot.

I will try and post a review of the razor including the shaving experience in the few weeks. I want to use it another couple of weeks before doing so. It is heavy headed, even more than a Valet, but interesting with the adjustable roll bar. So far, it is giving quite a decent shave in three passes.

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Cool. If you think it is worth it, I recommend kangaroo leather if you decide to replace the strop. It is as thin, but a lot stronger and less prone to stretch. Veg tanned, if you can source it.

I love those Empires. They look so steam punk.

Kentos said:

Very nice right up. I didn't expect the blades to look as robust as they do. Seems a waste to use them for a bit and them toss them...it must have been expensive at the time.

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+1- I was surprised as well. I had been watching these sets sell on eBay for a while, and initially figured they were essentially nice looking collectibles. I found my curiosity piqued and bid low on a couple of sets and scored a nice one. Once in hand, I too was surprised that the blades were actually good steel and much better made than a typical disposable blade of the time. Here is the link to the auction for the set the blade came from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/250917373469...84.m1439.l2649 The blade I used for this write up is the bottom one in the first picture with the stain by the bevel.

As to the original price of replacement blades, I will look around and see if I can find some old ads or something to indicate what they sold for. The set prices are easier, since many had the prices actually displayed in the top of the case. I think the set I bought was a little more than half an English pound in 1933, or roughly 1/2 of an average day's wage at the time.

Ah, half a day's wage is definitely more than what most spend on shaving implements outside of electrics and wet shavers.

An excellent review, Richard.
I have similar razor with seven blades... I'm planning to to sharpen them.
Thanks for the review.
Sincerely,
Alexander

fierce30rus said:

An excellent review, Richard.
I have similar razor with seven blades... I'm planning to to sharpen them.
Thanks for the review.
Sincerely,
Alexander

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Alexander- if you need any help when you get to it please let me know.

Legion suggested one layer of tape, so I re-honed one with one-layer rather than three and it was fine. The bevel grew just a tiny bit more, but the blade still easily fit into the holder and shaved well. So, I would now say one to three layers of tape would be do. I cannot edit the above posts to change them, so I figured I would just put a new post up.

Great information. Thanks so much for a very useful thread!